For close to three hours they only had the endless expanse of the ocean in sight. And, of course, fears of a near-certain death.
The five fishermen who landed at INS Venduruthy, near here, aboard the Naval ship INS Sharda on Tuesday morning, had plans of returning to the Cheruvathur harbour in Kasaragod district when they had set out for fishing in the early hours of last Sunday. But fate had that course altered, as lashing waves gobbled up their fibre boat and left them floating for hours with little chance of survival, before the naval ship came to their rescue.
In the end, they were thankful that at least they were lucky enough to return.
In his 40 years’ of life as a fisherman, Vasavan, 57, had never encountered anything similar. Though staring at an uncertain livelihood with the loss of the fibre boat with an inboard engine and fishing net, which at any other time would have given him sleepless nights, he is not unduly worried now. “Life is more precious than any big catch,” Vasavan said stoically.
Twelve nautical miles from the shore, they had cast the net wide as usual around 5.30 a.m. By the time they were pulling the net back an hour later, the wind had picked up and fierce waves were lashing their boat.
“One big wave filled our boat with water and two of us were trying to drain it out when another wave hit us, submerging the bow of the boat. Shortly, the boat capsized,” recollected 56-year-old Manoharan.
They hung on to the lower side of the upturned boat for 45-odd minutes before even that sank, leaving them with the petrol tank of the boat and a 1.5-metre-long oar, which provided a semblance of support to three of them while the two were left to keep themselves afloat with their bare hands.
“We were looking at each other’s face and mourning a near-certain death when the naval ship came along,” said S. Suresh, 42