5 fishermen rescued 12 hours after boat capsize

NAVI MUMBAI: Five fishermen had a lucky escape after their boat capsized off Ratnagiri recently. They struggled in the waters for more than 12 hours before they were rescued. The fibre-concealed wooden boat capsized when water gushed into it after a passing cargo ship threw up a wave off Harnaiat Dapoli around 2.30am on December 26.The five men - Naresh Chogale (46), Parag Chogale (18), Vaibhav Chogale (23), Dipak Khalu (22) and Dilip Bhuneswar (48) - had set out on Christmas day. They had cast their nets and anchored the boat around, some 14 nautical miles off the coast. After dinner, they had slept on board only to be woken up by water gushing into the boat. Some 15 minutes after they had grabbed their life jackets, the boat capsized. The five struggled for about five hours, swimming towards the coast until 7am. Around this time, they spotted a fishing trawler some 5 nautical miles away. Naresh swam towards the trawler, gesturing to the others to stay put. After Naresh alerted people on board the trawler, the coxswain of the Goan trawler, Krishna Sarang, rescued out the other four.Naresh then contacted villagers from Ratnagiri who sent a boat for them. Thankful to be alive, Naresh says he will now have to pay lakhs towards to the boat owner as it did not have any insurance.Assistant commissioner (fisheries) Abhaysinh Shinde Inamdar said the fishermen are not entitled to government assistance.