Fisherman ‘miraculously’ survives eight days at sea by ‘eating raw fish and drinking rainwater’

A Filipino fisherman has been reunited with his family after spending eight days adrift at sea – and just in time for his sister’s birthday.

Rosalon Frans Cayon, 31, and his fellow angler Junior set off from Buliluyan Port in Palawan island to catch tuna in the South China Sea on December 20.

As they began rowing on their separate boats at around 4am, their mission was clear: scoop up enough fish to buy a few more Christmas presents.

After throwing their nets around 30 miles offshore, the trawlers had caught more than enough tuna by December 23 so made their way back to port.

Except for Rosalon, that is. His rusty boat had sprung a leak and capsized, leaving him stranded out at a part of the South China Sea known as the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

All Rosalon had was his phone.

Rosalon Frans Cayon, 31, was left stranded in the middle of the sea when his boat sprang a leak (Picture: ViralPress)

‘When I saw water leaking into the boat, I started to panic,’ the Puerto Princesa local told the news network GMA News.

‘I calmed down after a while and thought maybe I could survive this. That’s when I started taking the videos.’

Across a series of videos, Rosalon showed how he opened the styrofoam boxes filled with the fish he had caught only days before to cut them up for meat.

He then salted and sun-dried the tuna to make daing, a Filipino delicacy.

Rosalon also made use of the ice inside a bucket brought to keep the tuna fresh, melting it to make drinking water that lasted for three days.

When it ran dry, Rosalon was forced to rely on the odd bit of rain for water – but this was a solution that wouldn’t last forever. Nor would the makeshift boat he made before his craft sank.

Rosalano jerry-rigged a raft before his boat fully sank by using styrofoam boxes (Picture: ViralPress)

He survived by eating the tuna he had caught only days before (Picture: ViralPress)

‘I destroyed the boxes and used the parts to make a raft, which I rowed toward Rizal Reef,’ Rosalon said.

‘I also took the boat’s rudder and used that to steer the raft. For my water, I was lucky there were occasional rains.

‘If there were none, I just had to endure my thirst.’

But in what officials described as a ‘New Year’s miracle’, Rosalon caught the attention of a Chinese fishing boat called a sampan near the Commodore Reef on New Year’s Eve.

‘I couldn’t even stand up. I was stumbling from exhaustion, hunger, and thirst after days without food and water,’ he recalled.

Naval Forces West said the angler was found ‘clinging to a makeshift raft’ made from styrofoam and bamboo and held together by string at about 10am.

Navy officials said it was a ‘miracle’ the fisherman survived (Picture: ViralPress)

The sampan crew gave him food and water before rushing him to a Philippine Navy base by the reef where Rosalon received medical attention.

He was in a ‘safe and stable condition’, the Western Command Armed Forces of the Philippines said on Facebook.

The country’s coast guard then organised his trip back home in Brgy Rio Tuba from Buliluyan Pier.

Capping off the ‘heartwarming tale of survival and resilience’, the Navy said Rosalon has since been reunited with his employers, whom he considers ‘family’.

Che-che Cayon Quinicon, Rosalon’s sister, told GMA News that she phoned the Coast Guard every day in a desperate effort to find out if her brother had been found.

‘By December 23, almost all of the fishermen had already come home except my brother,’ she said.

‘They said they didn’t see him. I also called the Coast Guard every day, but they always told me, he hasn’t been found.’

Then she discovered Rosalon had been rescued on her birthday.

‘Thank you very much (God) for your huge gift on my birthday,’ she wrote on social media. ‘Thank you very much to all those who love my sibling.’

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