Elvis Francois, the Dominican sailor who survived on ketchup and seasoning while stranded at sea for 24 days, has been found. He’s in Dominica… but he doesn’t have a phone.
Heinz, an American food processing company that manufactures thousands of food products including ketchup, has been attempting to locate Francois using the hashtag #FindTheKetchupBoatGuy on its Instagram page in order to celebrate his safe return and buy him a new boat.
With all the buzz surrounding this latest update, people have been trying to locate the lucky sailor to connect him with Heinz. Heinz, on the other hand, appears to have finally made contact. And here’s how.
On Wednesday, local media outlet EmoNews tracked Francois down in the small community of Anse De Mai in Dominica’s northwestern region, where they conducted an interview from his mother’s home.
The interview went well. “We’ve hopped into your DMs – let’s get Elvis his boat!” said Heinz in the EmoNews comments.
Francois described how he became stranded at sea during the interview. He was working on a yacht off the coast of Saint Martin when he went missing in December 2022.
“That happened so rapidly. The boat had some issues so that took time to repair too.”
That is how he ended up being at sea for 24 days. Francois said he only had ketchup, garlic seasoning, and a bottle of Maggi to make it.
Francois, 47, stated that he tried eating seaweed… he tried sea water… but it was too strong.
He was apprehended by the Colombian Navy on January 15, 2023, after a helicopter spotted him.
Francois stated that since the ordeal, he has lost everything and must start over, and that he currently does not have a phone.
