Miracle on a Sheet of Cork: Husband's Embrace Saves Wife in Selayar Sea
For Sitti Amang (47), the line between life and death in the Selayar Sea was nothing more than a piece of styrofoam and the tight embrace of her husband, Andi Samad.
For four days and three nights, Sitti was scorched by the sun and pierced by the cold nights of the waters west of Polassi Island, Bontosikuyu District, Selayar Islands Regency, South Sulawesi.
Wednesday, 15 July, marked the beginning of a nightmare for the passengers of KM Nurul Salsa. The vessel they were aboard suddenly lost its balance in the middle of the sea. Panic erupted as the hull was slowly swallowed by the waves.
Sitti still clearly remembers the tense moments when she had to abandon the ship to save her life.
“The ship was already listing when I got off,” Sitti recalled, speaking from her hospital bed at KH Hayyung Regional General Hospital in Selayar on Wednesday (22 July).
The sinking of KM Nurul Salsa forced Sitti, Andi, and more than a dozen other passengers to drift in open sea. There were no lifeboats — only a piece of styrofoam, a fragile catch of hope, on which nine lives rested.
On that fragile styrofoam, nature’s selection unfolded cruelly. For four days and three nights they drifted aimlessly, battered by waves and burned by the scorching sun.
“At first there were nine of us on the styrofoam. Only five survived, including Diska Yanti [a relative]. Four others died,” Sitti said softly.
Fighting hunger, cold, and despair
Surviving at sea was not only about battling the waves, but about enduring physical torment every second. Bone-dry throats and empty stomachs were their constant companions for more than 90 hours.
“For four days we did not eat or drink. We never slept, we were freezing all the time. Shivering at night. We wanted to eat drifting leaves, but there were none,” she said, her gaze distant as she recalled the agonising hunger.
But the threat did not only come from the merciless sea. For Sitti, the greatest threat was herself.
Sitti Amang could not swim.
The deep ocean gaping beneath her feet was ready to swallow her at any moment if she slipped off the styrofoam. But it was there that her husband played an absolutely vital role.
Andi Samad did not let his wife give up. With his dwindling strength, Andi continuously held his wife from behind, making sure the sea did not claim Sitti’s body.
“Without my husband, I would probably have fallen. I was at the front, and my husband kept holding me from behind, because I cannot swim,” Sitti revealed.
Chasing light at the edge of night
Amid mounting despair as the number of survivors dwindled, small glimmers of hope occasionally appeared at night.
Every time they saw the twinkle of lights from a passing ship in the distance, their survival instinct ignited.
They refused to surrender to fate. With whatever strength remained, their weak hands tried to paddle the water.
“At night, whenever we saw the lights of a ship, we tried to move towards them. Everyone who still had the strength tried to push the styrofoam closer. The lights were very far away, but we kept trying to reach them,” Sitti explained.
The relentless struggle, the suppressed hunger, and the love that kept them strong finally bore fruit. On Saturday (18 July), a passing fishing boat spotted the desperate waves of the victims’ hands.
Sitti Amang, Andi Samad, and three other passengers were finally pulled from the deadly embrace of the Selayar Sea. She now lies weak at KH Hayyung Regional General Hospital in Selayar.
The search operation for victims of KM Nurul Salsa has now entered its eighth day.
Basarnas, the national search and rescue agency, has announced that the search operation will continue for the next three days.
As of the eighth day of the operation, of the 78 people who were aboard KM Nurul Salsa, 59 have been found alive, 3 have been found dead, while 16 others remain missing.