Fishermen survived 18 days on boiled fish and hope

Pent up emotions were released as six fishermen who survived two weeks out at sea were brought back to Vijayawada on the Coromandel Express and set foot on platform no. 1 on Monday. They were received and garlanded by anxious family members and several officials led by Krishna district collector Babu A, who garlanded them. The fishermen hugged their family members as tears rolled down their cheeks.“It was god who saved us. We never expected to come back to our families. This is a fresh lease of life for us,” said K. Venkateswarlu, the steersman of the boat which drifted from off the coast of Machilipatnam to Sagar Island off West Bengal. Their ordeal begain on June 15 shortly after they set out from their village and ended more than two weeks later, when they were rescued by the Coast Guard.