After Tourist Boat Sinks, an Amazing Tale of Survival

When a tourist boat sank off the coast of Indonesia on Saturday, 25 people went into the water. One group of 10 survivors had to swim six or seven hours, eat leaves, drink their own urine, and dodge an erupting volcano on an island; the second group of 13 survived 40 hours in a lifeboat on the open water. Those who stayed behind took turns between being in the boat and the water. "We had this system, and in the beginning it was not easy," says one survivor. All 23 were rescued yesterday and today, the BBC reports; search and rescue crews are still looking for two missing passengers, believed to be a Dutch man and Italian woman, the AP adds.

The tourists' boat was making the 15-hour journey between the islands when it hit a 10-foot wave and then a reef, which caused it to leak and then sink. With little room on the lifeboat, the group of 23 decided to split—some stayed with the lifeboat and the rest swam. "It was a terrible experience. We swam in choppy waters for seven hours before being found by a fisherman," one survivor tells the AP. All 23 are now recovering in Sumbawa. (A camera from a 2012 shipwreck off Vancouver Island was recently found.)