Three Men Rescued From Remote Island in the Pacific Ocean After Spelling Out ‘HELP’ on the Beach With Palms

This story sounds like something out of a movie but it is all too real.

Three men set out to fish on a small skiff. They were headed from one small island to an even smaller one in Micronesia, but they ended up crashing on yet another small island called Pikelot, that looks like the setting for a story like Robinson Crusoe.

The men were able to live on coconuts and well water but they finally used palm fronds to spell out ‘HELP’ on the beach and were rescued.

Stars and Stripes reports:

3 stranded men were down to coconuts and a dead battery before Pacific rescue

Three men rescued this week from a remote atoll in the Pacific were subsisting on coconuts and well water when a U.S. Navy plane spotted their plea for help Sunday, a Coast Guard spokeswoman said.

The three, all in their 40s, had set out March 31 from Polowat Atoll, Micronesia, in a 20-foot skiff with an outboard motor for Pikelot Atoll, a 31-acre, uninhabited speck in a vast ocean, according to a Coast Guard news release Wednesday. The men were not identified by the Coast Guard.

“Their initial goal was to fish around Pikelot, but the skiff was damaged when they approached the island due to the swells surging on the island and surrounding shoal,” Chief Warrant Officer Sara Muir of Coast Guard Forces Micronesia, Sector Guam told Stars and Stripes by email Thursday. “They were originally going to meet up with another family from Satawal [Atoll] at Pikelot. The Satawal family ended up not going due to weather and sea conditions.”

On Saturday a woman “reported her three uncles had not returned from Pikelot Atoll,” approximately 115 miles northwest of Polowat Atoll, both part the Federated States of Micronesia, according to the Coast Guard.

Here’s a quick video report:

Imagine being trapped in such a remote place.

Now trending: Pikelot Island #GoogleMaps https://t.co/Pg3TkVDgL3 pic.twitter.com/dS1yPa7saL

— VirtualGlobetrotting (@VirtualGlobe) April 12, 2024

A U.S. Navy aircraft spotted the stranded men Sunday on Pikelot thanks to a message on the beach. Survival packages were dropped to help sustain them until they could be retrieved. https://t.co/5mSAPcXsIR

— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) April 11, 2024

These men are very lucky to be alive.