On the night of September 13, 2002, a passenger ship from Veracruz to Havana on the east coast of Mexico was sailing at full speed on the dark sea. Linda, a 28-year-old single passenger, went to Havana by boat to see her husband Kay, who has been doing medicine business in Cuba for many years. Linda deliberately didn't inform her before she left. She wanted to surprise her husband: three days ago, the doctor confirmed that she was pregnant.
At about 1 o'clock in the morning, Linda felt that the cabin was too stuffy and went to the deck to breathe fresh air. Usually, she likes to watch the white phosphorescent track behind the ship. She came to the stern and greedily admired the rolling water on the sea. Suddenly, a strong sense of vomiting surged up again, and Linda had no time to go back to the bathroom. She quickly poked her head out and vomited in the sea, but didn't realize that because she was too high, the guardrail of the ship was only next to her abdomen. When she spit out the stars, she suddenly lost her center of gravity and fell outside the railing. Linda fell into the cold sea without even screaming.
"Help!" Linda, who is good at water, instinctively jumped out of the sea and shouted for help to the fast-moving ship. However, the ship seemed to be asleep, and no one paid attention to her call for help.
The water stirred by the propeller hit Linda violently. Linda stepped on the water in despair, trying to hold her head as high as possible so as not to be choked by the surging ship. A minute ago, the sea that made her relaxed and happy suddenly became a beast that wanted to devour her. She watched the boat get farther and farther away from her.
After a few minutes, the sound of the engine on board completely disappeared. Only the rhythmic beating of the waves is left on the night-shrouded sea. Linda, who gradually calmed down from the panic, stopped calling for help in vain and mechanically walked upstream of the sea.
On the vast sea, she doesn't know which direction to swim. According to her estimation, the location where she fell into the sea was at least 100 nautical mile from the coast. It is impossible to swim ashore. The only thing she can do now is to save her strength and stick to it until dawn to see if she can be rescued by passing ships.
The stars are shining in the night sky, and Linda, who is wandering alone in the cold sea, struggles with the waves with tenacious will. Another woman may be crushed by the fear and despair after falling into the sea, but Linda has followed her father's shrimp boat to the sea many times since she was a child, experienced thrilling waves at sea and developed a tenacious character. At this time, she only has one belief: support until dawn!
As the sky turned white, Linda began to search the sea. She expected that a ship, even a small boat, would suddenly appear on the sea. However, until dawn, there was not even a piece of wood on the sea. It was a cloudy day. Linda can't judge the time according to the position of the sun, but she thinks it's been so long.
At noon, when Linda was disheartened, she was surprised to find the silhouette of a seagoing ship on the sea about 1 nautical mile ahead. Linda rubbed her eyes: Yes, it is a trawler! Linda swam to the boat and shouted for help. However, because it was against the wind, her crying could not be transmitted at all. Although she tried to catch up, the fishing boat was getting farther and farther away from her. Looking at the empty sea, exhausted Linda was very depressed. She realized that even if there were another ship at sea, her hope of being rescued was very slim.
In the afternoon, a typhoon blew on the sea, and the previous surge suddenly turned into a huge wave. In the angry sea, Linda was pushed to the top of the wave and fell into the trough. The sea rushed into her nose and poured into her stomach. Linda was breathless with a cough, and another wave came. She was pushed to the bottom of the water and almost suffocated.
When Linda was swept out of the sea again, she was dizzy and desperate. She couldn't believe her eyes: an oil rig appeared on the stormy sea!
Linda, who is dying, seems to have been given a shot in the arm. She struggled to swim to the "life-saving platform" given by God. After struggling in the sea for nearly 16 hours, Linda climbed onto the oil drilling platform with her last strength.
Isolated and helpless, challenging the survival crisis
Mexico is rich in submarine oil resources, and there are many offshore oil drilling platforms in its territorial waters. Linda thinks this is a drilling platform in use, however, fate seems to deliberately test her: there is no one above the platform. The doors and windows of the lounge and storage room are rusty, and there is no communication equipment on the drilling platform. This is obviously an abandoned drilling platform, and the fire of hope that Linda just ignited has gone out again.
In addition to a few empty beds, there is a toolbox in the lounge of more than ten square meters. There is a teapot in the washbasin. Fortunately, there is a bed covered with a blanket. Hungry Linda accidentally found a bag of moldy beef jerky, a bag of dried fish fillets and a small bottle of mineral water at the bottom of the cupboard in the storage room! At that moment, Linda sincerely thanked the people who had worked on this drilling platform.
Night arrival. Linda ate some beef jerky, drank two mouthfuls of water, and then lay on the iron bed wrapped in a blanket. Tired and sleepy, she temporarily forgot her situation and soon fell asleep in a daze.
When she woke up again, it was the next afternoon. The salty sea breeze suddenly reminded her that she was trapped on an island in the sea. She got up quickly and came to the platform. The sun has risen high, the sea is sparkling, and fish jump out of the water from time to time. Linda blamed herself for getting up too late. "Maybe, ships pass by here after dawn," she muttered.
For the next whole day, Linda stood on the platform like a statue. She just looked at the sea motionless. It was dark, and Linda, hungry and thirsty, ate some pieces of beef jerky and drank two sips of mineral water. Although the surface of beef jerky is moldy, she still chews it with relish. Linda calculated carefully that this bag of beef jerky was enough for her to eat for three days. Within three days, there must be a ship passing by in the nearby waters.
Before long, Linda's stomach was growling with hunger. However, what is worse than hunger is thirst. She can't bear to drink mineral water, but the rest can only last for three days at most. Three days later, if she is still trapped on this drilling platform, she will face the survival crisis of lack of food and water. Linda didn't want to think about it any more. An ominous omen made her shudder. That night, Linda stayed up almost all night.
At dawn on the third day, Linda arrived at the platform early. From sunrise to sunset, her eyes never leave the sea. However, except for a few huge whales, she once had hallucinations, and the ship she expected never appeared.
On the fifth night, Linda was dizzy because of serious water shortage in her body and faced with a severe survival crisis. If she can't get fresh water, she can last for 48 hours at most.
The shadow of death reminds her of her relatives: her husband Kay and her father. Suddenly, her childhood father drank fish and blood wine before going out to sea, praying for Poseidon's safety. Linda's eyes suddenly lit up: drink fish blood! Fish blood can replenish human moisture! She quickly found pliers and wire from the toolbox and quickly made a fish hook. Linda used dried fish fillets as bait. Linda, who has been fishing for shrimp since she was a child, caught a one-kilogram fish from the seawater under the platform without much effort.
Perhaps fish blood and sashimi supplemented the water and heat needed by the body, and Linda felt that her body was alive again. The dawn of survival brought her some comfort, but her mood was not relaxed. Linda's heart was as heavy as lead when dusk rose slowly at the junction of the sea and the sky. She asked silently in her mind: how long will she stay on this drilling platform in the depths of the sea?
Days passed in Linda's hopes and disappointments. This is the ninth day she spent on the drilling platform. It seems that there will never be a boat at sea. Linda, who has been living on fish blood and sashimi, began to have adverse stomach reactions and swollen face and limbs. In fact, from the seventh day, she vomited at the sight of sashimi. After vomiting, she swallowed sashimi again. Frequent vomiting seriously hurt her stomach, and with diarrhea, she became haggard and emaciated.
At noon on the tenth day, the clear sky suddenly clouded, and there was dull thunder in the depths of the sea, and the whole sea surface was violently turbulent. Linda was ecstatic when golden dendritic lightning appeared between the clouds: "Oh, my God, it's going to rain!" " She let out a cry of excitement and rushed into the storeroom to find the only washbasin that can hold water and the teapot on the platform. A few minutes later, the rain poured down. Linda stood in the rain, greedily opening her mouth to meet the rain better than dew. Although the sea at that time was like a runaway wild horse, as if to turn the drilling platform upside down, Linda was fearless in the storm.
The sea climate is unpredictable, and this sudden rainstorm only lasted for about 20 minutes and then came to an abrupt end. But for Linda, this is enough. The fresh water received in the washbasin and tea urn is enough for her to persist for another half month. She carefully brought the washbasin and tea urn into the storage room and stared at the clear rain like a jewel.
When Linda returned to the podium contentedly, she suddenly froze, and an unprecedented regret almost made her stamp her chest! On the distant sea, a cargo ship is dragging smoke to the distance. The traces of smoke left in the air show that the cargo ship has just passed through the sea near the drilling platform. If she had climbed onto the roof of the lounge and danced in a blanket a few minutes ago, she would have been saved.
Linda felt very sorry for this fatal negligence. After experiencing the pain of falling into the sea, she shed tears sadly. This is really the happiest and saddest day of Linda's life: she got fresh water to sustain her life, but she missed a precious chance to be rescued.
Use your quick wits to call for help "SOS"
After missing the freighter, Linda thought that since the first ship passed by, there would be a second and a third. She began to stare at the sea from morning till night, even the seaweed floating on the sea.
On the morning of the thirteenth day, Linda looked out at the sea on the drilling platform as usual. At about 10 minutes, the rumble of the aircraft engine goes from far to near. She quickly looked inside and saw two helicopters flying straight to her side in the blue sky. Linda shouted excitedly at the plane and waved her arms desperately. But she soon realized that the plane at 1000 meters didn't find her at all. Two helicopters crossed the drilling platform and continued to fly northwest.
Linda can see from the wing emblem that they are two military helicopters. She thought excitedly: whether it is patrol or reconnaissance mission, the helicopter may appear again. Maybe, the plane will pass here when it takes off from the coast and returns! Linda trusts her own judgment. "The key is to let the pilot know that there are people on the drilling platform!" Linda's brain is spinning very fast.
Maybe she used her quick wits. Linda suddenly remembered something. She rushed into the living room and took out three rusty paint buckets from under the bed. She pried open the first barrel cover, and there was half a barrel of antirust paint left in it, the same color as the drilling platform. The second bucket of paint is white, but it has expired and solidified. Linda pried open the third lid in fear and trembling, ah! It's yellow paint! No expired yellow paint! Linda sniffed a few times in front of the paint bucket, and the pungent chemical smell of the paint made her feel good!
Without a minute's delay, she cut off a blanket, dipped it in paint, and scribbled "SOS" on the helipad on the platform. An hour later, three huge English letters suddenly appeared on the tarmac. In the sun, the golden "SOS" shone brightly, and Linda, who was so tired and sweaty, seemed to see the hope of being rescued.
At about 1 pm, two helicopters appeared again. With the rumbling engine sound, the helicopter is getting closer and closer to the drilling platform. Linda kept running on the tarmac when the plane passed the platform, but the two helicopters continued to fly to the southeast, and Linda seemed to fall into the cold sea again. She stared blankly at the plane in the distance, almost crying. Just when she was desperate, she saw a helicopter turn around and fly to the drilling platform.
In fact, helicopter pilots have seen the new "SOS" on the drilling platform. Pilots of two planes are discussing who will land on the drilling platform.
Soon, a coast guard helicopter landed firmly on the tarmac painted with the word "SOS".
A few minutes later, the helicopter took off again and took Linda to the emergency center of the air base. Linda survived 13 days after falling into the sea, and finally miraculously survived.
Finishing: zhl20 1702