kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt
As they drifted for four scorching days and cold nights, hoping the sea would not swallow them, three fishermen survived on baking fish in the sun and four bottles of water.
So warm was the sun that when Orange Valley fishermen Luis Manuel Yirvin, his cousin Gilbert Jesus Milan Mendoza and their captain Ender Emil, all Venezuelan immigrants, returned to shore, their skin was severely tanned.
There were cries and tight embraces from family members as the fishermen returned to the berthing site on Friday after being rescued by the crew of a trawler.
Speaking at his home near the Orange Valley Wholesale Fish Market yesterday, Richard Mendoza, the pirogue’s owner, told Guardian Media that the men left on Monday with water and food. Although they prepared for the trip, they did not have supplies to last them five days.
“They knew their survivals skills because when we met them yesterday, they showed us where they cut fish and had it spread out for the sunlight to dry it like how you make saltfish. And they were surviving on that,” Mendoza said.
The fishing pirogue Simon Peter in which the three Venezuelan fishermen slept on for five days after experiencing engine problems, docked at the Orange Valley Fishing Bay in Waterloo, yesterday. 1/1/22
RISHI RAGOONATH
It was an engine failure that led to the frightening ordeal.
Mendoza said the men finished their catch around 6 pm near Patos Island on December 27. It is an area they frequent because there would catch several types of fish. But as they tried to return to Orange Valley, the engine would not start.
However, Mendoza thought they were waiting for a catch, so he did not suspect anything was wrong even though their 9 pm return time expired.
At 6 am the following morning, he contacted the Coast Guard and sent a GPS location of where other fishermen last saw the boat.
Mendoza said the response to the missing fishermen was inadequate as a helicopter search would have cut the time by 75 per cent. He said the rumours that the men stole the boat and went back to Venezuela was hurtful as they worked hard to provide for their families.
Given the deadly attacks on fishermen in recent years, president of the Orange Valley Pirogue Association Christopher John was worried when the men did not return, thinking that bandits got them.
However, he felt relieved when the trawler found them five miles from their last seen location and alerted fellow fishermen.
“The trawler was in the same region that the guys were but a couple of miles away from them. The captain was alerted days ago that a vessel was missing, so he kept a lookout. When he saw the vessel, he kept going closer. When the vessel was about a mile away, one of the guys dived over and tried swimming towards him,” John said.
Boat owner Richard Mendoza, right, and the President Orange Valley Pirogue Association, Christopher John inspects the engine that the three Venezuelan fishermen used on the Simon Peter pirogue.
RISHI RAGOONATH
Couva North MP Ravi Rattiram said that with the kind of crimes at sea and the deaths of Orange Valley and Carli Bay fishermen over the years, the Coast Guard should set up a base in Central Trinidad.
