After 3 months lost at sea, five survivors are rescued on an isolated island

Tedwinson Paul had already made the crossing. At 31, he was the eldest of a nine-member family on a routine resupply trip to a nearby island in the Federated States of Micronesia.

What should have been a short jaunt back home in their 20-foot skiff became a three-month, more than 3,000-mile odyssey across the ocean that left four of her loved ones, including a child, dead. He and the other survivors were rescued Sunday in the island nation of Kiribati after nearly 100 days adrift, the latest in a long list of Pacific voyages gone fatally wrong.

At one point during their return trip, their boat ran out of fuel and veered off course, said Arthur Irons II, an official in the Micronesian state from which the family had departed.

When Mr. Irons learned the boat had not returned as expected, he informed the federal government, he said. The U.S. Coast Guard, which helps patrol the region, launched air and sea searches, mobilizing military and commercial vessels to sweep an area of ​​25,000 square nautical miles. But after 10 days with no signs of disappearance, the Coast Guard called off their efforts.

Passengers saw ships and planes in the distance and called for help, but their ship was too far away, said Mr. Irons, who had spoken with Mr. Paul several times since the rescue.

Passengers drank rainwater to sustain themselves, Mr. Irons said. They captured birds and turtles for food, according to a nurse and an employee on the island where they eventually landed. The dead were thrown overboard.