A man who miraculously survived two months adrift on an inflatable boat in the Sea of Okhotsk in Russia’s Far East has had a case opened against him for violating water safety rules, the regional Prosecutor’s Office wrote on Tuesday.
Screenshot: Kamchatka Life / Telegram
Mikhail Pichugin, 46, set off in a dinghy from Cape Perovskogo in Russia’s Khabarovsk region with his brother and his 15-year-old nephew on 9 August to go whale watching, according to Telegram channel Baza.
While they had intended to sail the approximately 150 kilometres to the town of Okha on the island of Sakhalin, communication with the boat was lost and it failed to arrive as expected in Okha three days later, the Prosecutor’s Office said.
Pichugin’s brother and nephew both died in unknown circumstances while they were lost at sea, despite having taken warm clothes, life jackets, flares, food and 20 litres of drinking water with them.
Fishermen finally came across the boat adrift off the village of Ust-Khayryuzovo, in the Kamchatka region, almost 1,000 kilometres northeast of Okha, on Monday, more than two months since it had set sail, during which time Pichugin had lost 50kg, according to Baza.
