The Gastonguay family left the U.S. in May because they were not happy with government interference in religion in the country and planned to sail to a small island, but instead got lost at sea for weeks.
Hannah Gastonguay, 26, her 30-year-old husband Sean, his father Mike, and their two young daughters Ardith and Rahab, moved from Ash Fork, Arizona to San Diego in November to live on their boat until they decided to start their journey. They planned to live on a small island nation on the Pacific Ocean called Kiribati, which is halfway between Hawaii and Australia and has a population of about 100,000 natives.
According to Gawker, Hannah told reporters that they “decided to take a leap of faith and see where God led us.” The family was against abortion, homosexuality, taxes, and the state-controlled church, and did not feel like the U.S. was where they wanted to live anymore.
Soon after they left San Diego in May, they started getting hit by multiple storms, which would leave the boat more damaged each time. Because of the constant storms, they went off their path to Kiribati and were adrift at sea for weeks running very low on food and supplies.
“We didn't feel like we were going to die or anything. We believed God would see us through," Hannah said, according to The Gazette."We were in the thick of it, but we prayed.”
Despite a few run-ins with other boats that were not able to help them, they were eventually rescued by a Venezuelan fishing vessel. They boarded that ship for about five days before being transferred to a Japanese cargo ship for three weeks, which landed in Chile Friday.
The family was taken to the U.S. Embassy in Chile, who flew them back to the U.S. Sunday. The family will now move back to Arizona and “come up with another plan”.