Discover the incredible journey of Aldi Novel Adilang, an 18-year-old Indonesian fisherman who found himself stranded at sea for 49 days on a small raft, surviving on raw fish and sheer determination until he was finally rescued by a passing ship near Guam.
Aldi Novel Adilang is from an Indonesian island called Sulawesi and at the time of this story was 18 years old. For the past two years he had worked on a small fishing boat called a rompong. A rompong does not look like a fishing boat. It’s a wooden raft with no engine which floats on the sea.
At 7 o’ clock one morning in July, Aldi heard a noise. The anchor keeping his rompong in place had broken and he was floating away. He quickly tried to reach his friends on the radio, but no one replied. He was not worried to begin with. He knew that people would soon look for him. He had a small supply of fresh water, some rice, spice and coconut oil.
However, within a few days his food and water were running out. He began to fish and was able to catch tuna, which he ate raw. When he was not fishing, he sang songs. He also spent a long time wondering if anyone would find him. He was beginning to miss his parents. Eventually, his water ran out. He began to soak his shirt in the sea and let the water drip into his mouth. He hoped his shirt would take out some of the salt from the seawater.
One morning, he saw a large ship. He was so excited when they replied to him on his radio. “We have seen you! We are very busy at the moment, but we will come back later. Don’t worry.” It never turned back and continued on its journey. He saw ten other ships which he tried to contact. They all sailed past.
Forty-nine days after Aldi’s anchor broke, he saw the eleventh ship. He waved as usual and called on his radio. Like the ships before, it sailed past him. He watched the ship begin to disappear into the distance, when to his amazement, he saw it turn. It was a ship called the M.V. Arpeggio. They were not far from an island called Guam – nearly 2,000 kilometres from where Aldi had started his long journey.
At the time of Aldi’s rescue, the waves were very high. When the ship was close to Aldi, he jumped into the water. He was able to reach a rope ladder that had been thrown over the ship’s side. On board, the crew learnt about his story by using Google Translate. They gave him food, new clothes, and a haircut. They were on their way to Japan. Once there, Aldi was examined at the Indonesian Consulate. He was in good health and just wanted to return home so he could celebrate his 19th birthday with his family.
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VIDEO: Watch Aldi’s rescue
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