It was on the 8th of January 2016, five men were reported missing and drifted for a week between the seas of Ulawa and South Malaita before finally being rescued.
Father of four, Kingsley Tea, government forestry officer serving in Central Province, was among the five survivors adrift.
Apparently he was the skipper of the out-board motorized boat.
The five men were fortunate to survive the six days ordeal although with little food and water to drink.
Wasn’t it for Tea’s strength in faith and strong will to survive the tragedy his little baby girl born on 28th January 2016 would not have seen him.
Fortunately he was blessed with luck to have survived the tragic ordeal.
Tea recalls that at times during the sea drift ordeal he often felt night meres of varying thoughts rushing through his brain.
Thoughts about edging between life and deaths were constantly flashing through his brain as another day and night passes.
“But thank heavens, I am so lucky, we have all survived the tragedy and more importantly to me is the fact I am able to see my baby girl whom I guess would be so glad to know when she grows older that she nearly missed her father,” he said.
Wife, Janet Tea likewise was overwhelmed when she heard news of her husband’s survival.
Like miracle, Janet kept her spirit high while at the back of her mind she obviously knows well how difficult life would be running a family of four children without a father.
“It was tough trying to keep your spirit high with positive thoughts that my husband will eventually be re-united with his family alive and often those thoughts get awkward at times as each day passes but my prayers kept me strong and hopeful,” said Janet.
She said she and her four children kept their spirit high eagerly hopeful their missing father would one day be re-united with them’.
Yes fortunately luck was on their side and the family eventually was reunited with their father Kingsley Tea after he was rescued sound and alive.
Needless to describe, the re-unification by the family with their missing father was one of great emotional moment with mixed feelings of great joy, excitement and sadness.
More so, for Tea, it was the joy of seeing his baby daughter who was still unborn while he was still adrift out in the ocean.
Although no name has been given to his baby daughter, Tea said he is seriously thinking about naming her with words reminding the family of his survival from the tragic sea ordeal.
With some pieces of cooked taro and six potatoes, two 1.5 litre mineral water and four pineapple fruits the party left Ulawa Island on January 8th 2016 , only to get got up with their unfortunate fate.
Tea said these were the only available food we have in the boat.
“We ran out of drinking water just on the first day of our drift as the increasing heat of the sun had made our thirst for water even more.
“We had to ration taste of the pineapple juice each day until it was finished,” he said.
Tea recalled setting off a day earlier on 7th January from South Malaita towards Ulawa Island.
He said the plan was to drop off some relatives on Ulawa island and return the same day.
He said they have unfortunately miscalculated the right amount of fuel required to take them both ways of the journey to and back.
He said they tried to purchase enough fuel but unfortunately they did not succeed and as it was getting dark they decided to spend a night on Ulawa Island.
He said the party then left Ulawa Island very early in the morning on 8th January and headed to South Malaita.
“We could see South Malaita from our distance as we set out on the trip. But shortly after take off, dark clouds covered the horizon creating poor visibility which prevented us from seeing and knowing exactly our correct destination course or route although we felt we were heading in the right direction.
“Our expectation that the journey should have taken us just an hour to reach our destination had surpassed the hour while we have yet to sight an island.
“And as we were beginning to get puzzled over what might have gone wrong, so we decided to stop the motor and wait until the low clouds clear out giving us clear visibility before travelling on.
“Alternatively we decided returning to Ulawa Island but we discovered the amount of fuel still left in our fuel tank would not be sufficient to last the journey.
“We drifted the full night and by dawn early Saturday 9th January 2016, we found ourselves drifting quite far out to sea, some distance away from the location of our destination, due to the strong flow of ocean currents which took us off course.
“We were helpless since by then our fuel had already ran out.
“We decided to paddle back to Ulawa Island but strong currents made paddling so difficult to move the boat against,” he said.
“By Sunday, we were left with few fruits on board and decided to ration out small bits and pieces of each fruit in the hope a rescue search would eventually find us.
“Suddenly we heard a sound and saw a helicopter appeared on the horizon above and as our excitement about being spotted and rescued was at the point of exultation it suddenly melted when we saw the chopper turned away and disappeared.
“We were left feeling rather helpless as it was our only hope of being rescued early.
“Then we found ourselves drifting close to Ulawa island again and had to be complacent with spending the night again adrift in the ocean.
“By then we have virtually ran out of food and drinking water and everyone was starting to bear the effects of hunger and starvation by growing weaker and weaker in body and mind.
“By dawn Monday 11th January 2016, we saw from the horizon what we thought was an Island and began paddling towards it only to discover later it was only low dark clouds,” said Tea.
He said the saw it was raining heavily some distance away and paddled towards it.
They managed to get rain water in some of their water in their fuel containers but still without food.
“By the time the rain stopped we could see Ulawa Island some distance away and once again attempted paddling towards the island only to be pulled away to a different direction by the strong ocean currents,” he said.
“On Tuesday morning 12th January, our fifth day adrift we thought we saw an island again and decided to paddle towards it but by midnight we were still unable to reach its shores.
“Since we became so tired we decided to drop our long fishing line with a tool at one end and when it got stacked the bottom of the ocean we manage to stay anchored at the same position preventing the currents from pushing us far out in the open seas again.
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“On Wednesday 13th January 2016, we began paddling towards an island quite visible from where we were drifting and as darkness fell we dropped our fishing line anchor once again.”
He said this time round the depth was quite shallow and they realized it was an off-shore reef from the island.
By Thursday morning 14th January they were excited at noticing the nearby island was that of South Malaita.
Although very weak from hunger, the joy and excitement seeing the proximity of South Malaita had given them the enthusiasism and determination to use extra energy to paddle towards its shores.
“We could see tree tops and recognized people moving around at the shore. But as we were so weak, we dropped our fishing line as anchor once again and waited patiently for help since we have made body signals to people from the shoreline to bring us help.
“We saw a man pulling down his canoe towards sea, we waited patiently and as we saw him paddling we waved and signaled him to come over.
“We told him our story when he arrived, and begged him to get us some fresh water and food as fast as he could. He did and sent two of his sons back to us with food and water.
“We were so weak that we could hardly move even to start the engine and so I instructed the two boys to take us ashore.
“While most of us felt so weak and managed to rapidly recover without much complication, one of our colleagues was treated for pneumonia.
“Police were informed about our safe landing after six days adrift and came and transported us to our respective home destinations.
“That unfortunate tragedy will certainly linger on in the minds of all of us who have been through the ordeal, but for me the joy of being re-united with my family is the blessing money can’t buy,” Tea concluded.
By BRADFORD THEONOMI
