Man saved by shark after 106 days at sea

Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip with a dark ending for one man but a whale (or shark) of a tale from his companion.

Toakai Teitoi and his brother-in-law of the island nation of Kiribati thought their trip from the island of Tarawa to its neighboring Maiana by sea would be short and uneventful, but after falling asleep in the night after doing some fishing along the way, they awoke to the nightmare of being adrift in the middle of the world’s largest ocean short on fresh water.

Despite the obvious danger, both men managed to make it almost a month and a half when Teitoi’s brother-in-law died of dehydration, leaving Teitoi to battle the elements and his emotions all alone.

The prayers he uttered on that awful night seemed to be answered when a storm allowed him to collect enough fresh water to last until the incredible day when he was surprised by a bumping on the side of his boat that turned out to be a shark that Teitoi believes was trying to lead him to a passing craft.

“He was guiding me to a fishing boat,” Teitoi said. “I looked up and there was the stern of a ship and I could see crew with binoculars looking at me.”

Teitoi understandably has offered up few other details of his horrible ordeal, but it might be time to give our old enemy the shark the benefit of the doubt for once.