Spanish couple survive on seawater for ten days after being shipwrecked

A Spanish couple who survived for 10 days adrift at sea off the island of Borneo with no food and only seawater to drink have been reunited with relatives who had travelled to Malaysia to help in the search effort.

Marta Miguel and David Hernández had practically been given up for dead when several days of aerial searching revealed no clue of their whereabouts after they were last seen setting off on a boat ride from a resort in north-eastern Malaysia on May 2.

When the motor to the small boat on which the couple and two local hotel workers was found tangled in fishing nets, it seemed to confirm the worst.

But on Thursday the four occupants of the craft were found alive by Vietnamese fishermen having drifted 230 miles west of their point of departure.
“We never gave up hope. At no point did we think it was all over,” said a jubilant Ms Miguel in the couple’s first comments to the media on disembarking a Malaysian military plane at Kota Kinabalu airport, where some of the couple’s relatives had gathered for an emotional reunion.

Marta’s father, Luis Miguel, told Spanish RNE radio that a wave had caused the boat to capsize, after which the occupants had been unable to restart the motor.
They had lost all their supplies and equipment in the water, meaning they had been forced to drink seawater which they partially filtered through the remains of a plastic bag.

Without a motor or oars, they were completely at the mercy of currents which carried them westwards across the Sulu Sea towards the Philippines.
“We could still see the coast in the distance for the first three days but then we no longer could”. Ms Miguel explained.

“The sea is merciless but it has also been kind to us,” said Mr Hernández.
Both were in good health despite their ordeal.
The couple, aged 30 and 29, travelled to Malaysia in January in search of work opportunities.