Man stranded on island for 10 days tells story of survival
Posted May 27, 2012 7:38 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
PRINCE RUPERT (NEWS1130) – One of the three men who were stranded on an island off the coast of Northern BC spoke to News1130 earlier tonight.
Jesse Brillon and brothers Brian and Dave Martynuik were prawning when their boat overturned as a result of gusting winds and rough waters.
When the wave lifted the boat on the starboard side, Brillon jumped from where he was sitting, and ran to the back of the boat. Within minutes, the three men were standing on the overturned boat. Brian, the younger brother, was able to pull the inflatable raft from the boat.
All three managed to get inside the inflatable raft and waited for hours before they realized nobody was coming to find them and their mayday hadn’t been heard.
The men, who were approximately 12 nautical miles off shore, huddled together under the tarp as they drifted for about 15 hours.
Despite being stranded on the water, none of the men developed hypothermia.
He says it was hard not to wonder if it was going to be their last trip ever.
“When we were all standing at the bottom of the boat, looking at each other and (we couldn’t) see shore,” he remembers. “I tied a bladder around my waist and (one of the others) asked what I was doing and I told him ‘Well, if we go down, they’ll find my body at least.’
“We were at the mercy of the wind and the tide so we got close,” he says. “We were pretty happy when we hit the first rock where we ended up.”
The three men survived on Banks Island for 10 days. They used driftwood to build a shelter.
Brillon says they scoured the shores for food and for the first few days ate sea urchins and seaweed. After a couple days, the trio found clam beds, and ate those until they were rescued on the tenth day.
In the end, it was a sailboat trolling the shores that spotted the trio, as Brillon and the two others had created quite a pile of garbage as a means for attention.
“There were a few moments when we thought we might not get out of it but we’re all strong in our minds and we knew we’d all figure it out.”
