FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (TNS) — Two men and a woman were rescued from a deserted island Tuesday after surviving on coconuts for 33 days, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
The Coast Guard spotted people waving flags Monday as it was on a routine air patrol of the waters around Anguilla Cay, in a chain of islands between the Lower Keys and Cuba. The Coast Guard picked up the case as a rescue mission and returned to drop water, food and a radio to them on Monday.
A helicopter crew picked them up Tuesday and flew them to the Lower Keys Medical Center. None of them appeared seriously hurt.
The Coast Guard said the trio was from Cuba. They told the helicopter crew their boat capsized in rough waters nearly five weeks earlier, and they were able to swim to the deserted island.
It was not immediately clear if they were migrants trying to make it to the U.S. or another country, or if they were fishermen lost at sea, said U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Brandon Murray.
Murray said it was remarkable that the three people survived. “I cannot recall a time that we saved people who were stranded for over a month on an island,” he said. “That is a new one for me.”
