Manado, Indonesia: It's a story out of a novel: Aldi Novel Adilang was stuck drifting at sea for nearly two months, with little besides a Bible and his own ingenuity to aid him. The 19-year-old, from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, worked on a floating fishing trap known as a rompong, maintaining lights on it to attract fish. He has worked on the small craft, which are generally anchored to the seabed, since he was 16. The wooden fish trap on which Aldi Novel Adilang spent 49 days adrift. Credit:Indonesian Consulate, Osaka Aldi typically spent much of his week on his floating hut out in the Bay of Manado. Each week, someone from his company would come to collect the fish. They also dropped off fresh food and water. But a storm snapped his lines in mid-July, leaving him to float helplessly without a paddle, nearly 130 kilometres out in the bay.<doc-sep>For 49 days, Aldi Novel Adilang was stranded in the Pacific Ocean. The Indonesian 18-year-old, whose job is to maintain a wooden fishing hut off the nation’s coast, became stranded in mid-July when heavy winds unmoored his floating fish trap. Adilang ended up hundreds of miles away, near Guam, where his emergency signal caught the attention of a Panamanian vessel. His survival has been chalked up to extreme ingenuity, and a bit of luck. On Monday, The Jakarta Post reported that Adilang survived by catching fish and burning the parts of the floating hut, called a “rompong,” to make fire for cooking. To stave off thirst, Adilang relied on one of the few things he had: his shirt. According to Indonesia’s Consul General Mirza Nurhidayat, Adilang “drank by sipping water from his clothes that had been wetted by sea water.” This may seem impossible: After all, seawater is so salty that it’s toxic to the human body. The body can get rid of excess salt through its kidneys, but if a person doesn’t consume fresh water during that process, then all that salt doesn’t undergo the dilution necessary to excrete it. According to the National Ocean Service, a person would have to urinate more water than they drink to get rid of all the salt consumed in seawater. Eventually, this process leads to death by dehydration. Nurhidayat’s quote seems to be the only evidence that Adilang used his clothes as a means to drink water, but some outlets are reporting that the soon-to-be 19-year-old used his shirt as a filter. And that, according to some scientists, might actually work. Two studies have shown that filtering water through a sari — a garment commonly worn by women in the Indian subcontinent — can significantly increase its potability. In 2003, scientists discovered that filtering water from rivers and ponds in Bangladesh through a folded piece of cotton cloth taken from a sari cut the risk of infection with cholera by half. Interestingly, they noted that old cloth makes for a better filter than new cloth because the pore size of loose threads is smaller. In a follow-up study in 2015, researchers found that a filter made of four layers of worn cotton material could filter out more than 99 percent of all cholera bacteria. While boiling water is still considered a better way to purify water, scientists still consider the cloth technique to be uniquely useful. But whether cloth do the same thing for salt as it does for bacteria is debatable. Some YouTube survivalists say it can, but others recommend another cloth-meets-saltwater method: A CNN guide to being stranded at sea recommends using the shirt to capture moisture from the air and then wringing it out. Using cloth as a filter likely wouldn’t remove all the salt from seawater, but it could certainly reduce salt levels to less dangerous concentrations. According to the United States Geological Survey, fresh water typically has a saline concentration of 1,000 parts per million (ppm). In comparison, ocean water contains 35,000 ppm of salt. It entirely possible that Adilang’s clothes removed enough salt molecules from the water that his kidneys could process it without becoming dehydrated. If you ever find yourself adrift and have access to the materials, the more frequently recommended method of saltwater purification is distillation. In its most basic form, distillation could mean boiling seawater in a pan and capturing the steam as it condenses on a surface, like a plastic soda bottle. The resulting water should be largely salt-free. It’s a slow process, sure, but it could also mean the difference between life or death.<doc-sep>An Indonesian teenager spent 49 days at sea in a fishing hut before he was spotted by a Panamanian-flagged vessel. In July, Aldi Novel Adilang, 19, was working as a lamp keeper, lighting lamps to attract fish to the floating fishing hut moored off shore from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, when the line tethering him snapped in a vicious storm. Adilang was then set adrift, carried over 1,500 miles by the tides until he was rescued off the coast of the U.S. territory of Guam. The teen survived by catching fish to eat and drinking seawater that he filtered through his clothing to reduce the amount of salt in it. He said more than 10 ships passed him by during his time at sea before one saw him and stopped on Aug. 31. “Aldi said he had been scared and often cried while adrift," diplomat Fajar Firdaus, who works with the Indonesian consulate in Osaka, told The Jakarta Post. The crew fed him and gave him water, and the ship's cook even cut Adilang's hair. Adilang has since reunited with his family and is doing well. RELATED STORIES<doc-sep>At a Glance The 19-year-old was rescued after 49 days and over 1,500 miles at sea in a fishing hut he worked in. He survived by cooking fish he caught and sucking water through his shirt to remove some of the salt. He was finally rescued by a Panama-flagged ship, the Arpeggio, who brought him to Japan. Adilang returned home Sept. 9, over eight weeks after his hut broke away from its anchor during a storm. It was hard to believe Aldi Novel Adilang's job could get much lonelier than it already was until it did. A 19-year-old from Indonesia, Adilang served as a lamp keeper on a floating fishing trap, known as a rompong, that sat some 77 miles off the coast of North Sulawesi, a province of Indonesia, according to the Jakarta Post. Adilang spent his days in isolation with the exception of brief, weekly interaction when someone would come to gather the captured fish and drop off food and supplies and the occasional communication via walkie-talkie. Then, on July 14, that stopped. A strong storm pounded his tiny hut, breaking the rope that anchored it in place. From there, Adilang drifted farther and farther into the Pacific Ocean, alone, for 49 days until he was rescued over 1,500 miles away in Guam waters. Within a few days, he ran through the week's worth of supplies that had been dropped off to him when his fish were harvested. Adilang had to get resourceful, cooking fish he would catch by burning wood from his floating hut, sucking water from his clothes to help filter out the salt and crafting a shower out of bamboo, the Guardian reported. Adilang began to fear for his life, but to comfort himself he would lie on his raft in the afternoons and read his Bible after spending the mornings fishing, he told local news outlet TribunManado. At nights, he would power off the rompong's generator, which powered the lights used to attract fish, to conserve energy. The Arpeggio's crew tend to Adilang once he's pulled from the sea and aboard the ship. (Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia) "Every time he saw a large ship, he said, he was hopeful, but more than 10 ships had sailed past him, none of them stopped or saw Aldi," said Fajar Firadus, a diplomat of the consulate in Osaka. It wasn't until Aug. 31 that Adilang could get the attention of a ship. A Panama-flagged bulk carrier named Arpeggio would sail past Adilang's ship, but despite his best efforts to flag them down by waving his clothing in the air, the ship kept going. Adilang then turned his radio to a frequency a friend had told him to in case of an emergency where he was blown away and saw a large ship. Advertisement "Fortunately, the ship’s captain caught the signal. Realizing [there was someone pleading for help], he turned around,” said Mirza Nurhidayat, a member of the consulate who oversaw Adilang's return after rescue. Despite gaining the ship's attention, Adilang's rescue was far from easy. With high waves, the Arpeggio had to circle his rompong four times before the ship's crew could throw out a rope. Even then, the rope was not long enough to reach the hut. “Aldi then decided to jump into the sea to grab the rope, while the waves and wind rocked him,” said Fajar. After nearly 50 days at sea, Adilang was weak and nearly lost the rope, but the crew managed to catch his hand and pull him aboard the ship. The crew immediately gave Adilang a towel along with something to eat. Later, they gave him fresh clothes, food and a haircut. Because the crew found Adilang in Guam waters, they contacted the island's coast guard. They told the Arpeggio's captain to bring Adilang to Japan, where the ship was already headed. The Arpeggio docked in Japan on Sept. 6, and Adilang was given permission to enter the country the next day. On Sept. 8, Adilang flew out of Tokyo (Adilang was supposed to leave from Osaka, but Typhoon Jebi interfered with those plans) to Jakarta, arriving in Manado the next day, where his family lives. Adilang said he no longer plans to work at sea anymore, and instead would start working on land.<doc-sep>
Aldi Novel Adilang survived 49 days at sea by catching fish and cooking it using wood from his hut. It's a story out of a novel: Aldi Novel Adilang was stuck drifting at sea for nearly two months, with little besides a Bible and his own ingenuity to aid him. The 19-year-old, from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, worked on a floating fishing trap known as a rompong, maintaining lights on it to attract fish. He has worked on the small craft, which are generally anchored to the seabed, since he was 16. Aldi typically spent much of his week on his floating hut out in the Bay of Manado. Each week, someone from his company would come to collect the fish. They also dropped off fresh food and water. But a storm snapped his lines in mid-July, leaving him to float helplessly without a paddle, nearly 80 miles out in the bay. According to the Guardian, the teenager caught fish and cooked it using wood from his hut. He filtered seawater through his clothing to remove some of the salt. And he watched, desolate, as ships passed close by without stopping. "Aldi said he had been scared and often cried when adrift," Fajar Firdaus, a diplomat at the Indonesian Consulate in Osaka, Japan, told the Jakarta Post. "Every time he saw a large ship, he said he was hopeful, but more than 10 ships had passed him, none of them stopped." Finally, after 49 days, Aldi succeeded in sending a radio signal to a passing Panamanian-flagged tanker in the waters off Guam, hundreds of miles from Sulawesi. (The radio was a gift from a friend, who gave it to him in case he was ever lost at sea.) Even his rescue was rough. Big waves made it hard for him to make the leap from his fishing hut to the boat. According to the Telegraph, he had to jump into the water and grab a line from a ship. In an interview with Tribun Manado, Aldi said he thought he "was going to die out there." The teen said his mental health suffered; at one point he considered jumping into the ocean to kill himself. In those moments, he said, he recalled his parents' advice: When desperate, pray. The teenager said he would refer to his Bible. After his rescue Aug. 31, Aldi was taken to Japan. He returned home to Manado earlier this month, and officials say he is doing well.