“We don’t know anything yet. We just know that he’s alive. It’s some kind of miracle!” she told the Russian agency.
She also said her daughter was supposed to go on the ill-fated trip but wanted to return home.
According to Ria, a helicopter search after they were reported missing found no trace of the trio.
The ship was discovered Monday while passing by a fishing boat in the Sea of Okhotsk off the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s Far East, Russian news agency reported.
Video released by prosecutors shows a bearded man wearing a life jacket being carried to safety by fishermen, shouting, “I have no strength.”
He was named Mikhail Pichugin, 46 years old, by Ria. The bodies of his older brother Sergei (49) and nephew Ilya were still on the boat.
Regarding the secret to his ability to survive for so long in the Sea of Okhotsk, the coldest place in East Asia, the representative of the Far East branch of the Russian Seamen’s Union suggested that the supply of fish may have played a role.
Nikolai Sukhanov told Ria Novosti that in this situation, you can survive by catching fish and taking out all the food left in the boat.
Mr Pichugin is currently recovering in hospital, with doctors describing his condition as “somewhat stable”.
Prosecutors said they would begin a criminal investigation, including examining the small boat and investigators determining the circumstances of the incident.
This is not the first time castaways have been found after drifting for days. An expert told Ria Novosti that four Soviet soldiers were rescued by a US aircraft carrier in 1960 after surviving 49 days on a small boat in the Pacific.
