Honduras Boat Crew 'Survived On Rainwater'

A crew of nine tell how they survived for five days after their boat ran out of petrol by catching rain in buckets during storms.

 

Nine crew members rescued after five days adrift in their boat off the coast of Honduras have said they survived by drinking rainwater.

The crew said they ran out of fuel and only survived by catching rain as their boat was tossed around in stormy weather.

One of the rescued crew members, Tasha Brown, said they had no food and caught drinking water from two storms in buckets and containers.

"In the middle of the night we hit two storms ... and it just poured and poured," the 20-year-old Canadian told ABC News.

"We flipped over every bucket that we had, ever container, every surface that could catch water. ... [We] prayed that we weren't going to be flipped over by the storm and that we would have water for the next day."

The 28ft vessel was spotted by a US Coast Guard plane about 66 miles from the western coast of Roatan, Honduras, where it had set sail on Saturday afternoon.

The group had run out of fuel during an 18-mile trip to Utila Island.

USCG spokesman Gabe Somma said the eight people on board - two Americans, a Canadian and six Hondurans - were all alive.

They were hoisted into a US Army helicopter on Wednesday afternoon and taken to Clearwater in Florida for treatment.

The search covered more than 4,000 square miles after a family member of the US citizens reported the boat missing.

The multi-agency mission included the Coast Guard, the Honduran navy, and aircraft attached to the US Southern Command in Honduras.