[1] Just before sunrise on 28 October 2005, Rendón, Ordóñez and Vidaña, along with two other seafarers, left the Mexican port of San Blas, Nayarit, to catch sharks 30 mi (48 km) south of the Islas Marías in a 28-foot (8.5 m) fiberglass boat.
But they exhausted their fuel and strong easterly winds cast them adrift in the Northern Equatorial Current which crosses the Pacific Ocean from Mexico to the Philippines.
Soon they reached the stranded boat and picked up the three surviving fishermen around 14:00 local time at a point located 200 mi (320 km) east of the Marshall Islands.
The sailors of the Taiwanese boat took them aboard and gave them food, medical care, and clothes and had them rest for the 13 days until they disembarked in Majuro, Marshall Islands, on 22 August 2006, where they were handed over to the local authorities and later to an official from the Mexican embassy in New Zealand, who arranged to have them flown back to Mexico.
[2] In Mexico shark-fishing permits are expensive, so small fishing boats that sail out into the sea to catch sharks often do not inform port authorities of their leaving.