A Russian whale watcher who miraculously survived 67 days floating at sea in a rubber boat has given harrowing details of how his brother and nephew died weeks before they were finally rescued.
Mikhail Pichugin, 45, is recovering in a hospital in the city of Magadan in Russia’s far east after being discovered by a fishing trawler and pulled from the icy waters of the Sea of Okhotsk.
The only survivors of the broken-down catamaran were the bodies of his brother Sergei Pichugin, 49, and son Ilya, 15, who had been tied to prevent them from falling overboard.
The teenager “starved to death” after eating almost nothing, Mash Media reported, citing Pichugin’s account of his ordeal to rescue workers.
The paper said that after Elijah’s death, his devastated father “went crazy.”
“Sergei cried, screamed and jumped into the water,” Pichugin recalled.
He pulled his brother out of the frigid water and tried to warm him up and feed him, but the boy wouldn't eat. He died 10 days later.
The trio were returning from a multi-day trip in August to the remote Chantal Islands, a famous whale feeding area, and were returning to the city of Okha on Sakhalin Island when their boat’s engine failed.
Pichugin said they initially tried to use oars to paddle across the open ocean, but the oars broke. His brother and nephew died on August 18th and 28th or September 18th and 28th, but the exact dates are unknown.
Russian authorities desperately searched for the trio for a month, then called off the operation. The ship drifted at least 625 miles and was discovered about 22 miles off the coast of the village of Ust-Kairyuzovo on the Kamchatka Peninsula.
Reports have attributed Pichugin’s ability to survive to being overweight. Reports say he lost more than 100 pounds in the more than two months he was in the dinghy.
He drank the rainwater he collected and wrapped himself in a thick camel-hair sleeping bag for warmth at night.
“When you crawl in, you get a little fidgety and warm,” he said. “There was no other choice.”
He said his only motivation was to think of his mother and daughter waiting at home. Pichugin also believed that God was watching over him.
“It was the Angel ship that saved me,” he said, referring to the trawler by name.
Pichugin said from his hospital bed that he wanted to go home “to bury my brother and nephew.”
However, his vessel is not allowed to sail more than two nautical miles from the coast, meaning he could face up to seven years in prison if he violates Russia’s maritime safety laws.
