Lost teens drank water to survive

WITH nothing to eat for three days while drifting aimlessly in the ocean, teenaged brothers Jesse and Jason Lall survived on water alone. The brothers, who went on a fishing expedition from Mayaro, Wednesday, drifted in their pirogue for three days, after it ran out of fuel. They were rescued late Saturday evening by a Moruga fisherman nicknamed “Chinee.” “Luckily we carried four gallons of water and that is what we drank to stay alive,” Jesse, 18,  said at his Lewis-Sucre Street, Mayaro home yesterday.

Their bodies scorched with sunburn, Jesse and Jason, 16, said the ordeal of finding their way back home began when their boat engine failed to start. They had travelled several miles off the coast of Guayaguayare to fish. “We passed Wednesday night on high seas,” Jesse said. Morning greeted them adrift in Venezuelan waters. Jesse dropped anchor, but Jason was scared, Jesse said. “But I assured my brother I’ll find a way out of this predicament.”

Jesse said he used his fillet net to slowly pull the boat back into Trinidad waters. He said fright and desperation to survive made hunger a second thought. On Friday morning they had not given up. “We still had hope because we had a gallon of water left,” Jason said. “We want to thank ‘Chinee’ very much for stopping and saving us. We also want to thank the Moruga police who gave us money to buy food,” Jesse said. Going back to sea is not something the brothers are thinking about these days.