Sydney - Two men and a teenager have been rescued after 22 days adrift in a dinghy, eating raw squid and drinking rainwater to survive in the seas off northern Australia, officials said on Wednesday.
The trio - a father, his son and a nephew - were winched to safety by an Australian rescue helicopter late on Tuesday after managing to send cellphone text messages to relatives with their approximate location, police said.
It was the second extraordinary rescue in Australia on Tuesday following the safe release early in the day of miners Brant Webb and Todd Russell who were trapped almost a kilometre underground at a Tasmanian gold mine for two weeks.
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"At one end of the continent there's two men rescued from an entombed mine and at the other end there's three men rescued after 22 days lost at sea," police inspector Russell Rhodes said.
"The 9th of May just appears to be an act of God," he told Australian Associated Press.
John Tabo, 38, his 20-year-old son John Jr and 16-year-old nephew Tom Tabo left their home on Murray Island in the Torres Strait between Australia and Papua New Guinea on April 17, bound for another island 70km away to fetch fellow members of a rugby team.
They became caught up in heavy seas and were not heard from again.
Rescuers searched for the men and their five-meter boat, but gave up after five days because of an approaching cyclone.
The three were presumed dead until relatives received a SMS from them on Tuesday saying their boat had drifted back near Murray Island.
"It was only from common sense that was used and especially for 21 days in conserving batteries for their mobile, and to find the right time to text was just a miracle," an island resident, Aven Noah, told ABC radio.
A visiting doctor who examined the men said they were dehydrated and had lost an average of 20kg in weight, but should recover.
"They had managed to gather some rain water so they have been able to drink a little bit and at some stage they caught a squid and managed to eat that raw or at least two of them could stomach it," Jo Mclean told the radio.
Police said the three, who used metal tins as hats to protect themselves from the sun and jerry cans as paddles during their ordeal, were incredibly lucky to have drifted back close enough to Murray Island to be able to use their phones.
They were found 17 nautical miles from their home island. - Sapa-AFP
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