Fishermen left stranded at sea for nearly two weeks were forced to drink their own urine and eat a disgusting combination of seaweed and raw sardines to survive.

Jhonny Palamino Geles, 30, and Alejandro Torrealba Silva, 26, were left adrift in the Sea after their boat engine failed off the coast of Cartagena, . They had left port on January 1, but the engine failure left them unable to return, and they were adrift for 12 days.

The two have told of how they lost more than 10kg (22lbs) each by the time they were found in waters near Panama and rushed to . Their members said they called while adrift to tell them of the lengths they had to go to in order to say alive.

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Antonia Gales, Jhonny's mother, told local media the two were able to contact their families by phone after their rescue to let them know they were alive. They explained that in order to stay alive, they ate seaweed, as well as sardines and other raw fish. And due to the lack of drinking water, they had no choice but to drink their own urine.

They also had to expend as little energy as possible to avoid dying of dehydration. Antonia said that after a week at sea, they began to feel the effects of serious dehydration and lack of proper food, saying: "They were found very thin, they lost more than 10kg, those boys are also sunburnt and dehydrated, but thank God they are alive."

The seas were reportedly rough and Antonia said she had begged her son not to go, but they wanted to catch shrimp to sell to locals. Antonia said: "They supposedly decided to go fishing. I did tell him, I warned him: 'Be careful, son, the sea is rough,' but he replied that they needed to go fishing to bring food to the table and see if they had anything left to sell.

"Above all, they wanted to catch shrimp and lobster, which the tourists who arrive in the region this time of year like so much." The fishermen also had to face three large thunderstorms while out at sea, but they survived and were eventually picked up by the Panamanian Navy.

Antonia said the two men are now "in a hospital or a Panamanian Navy care centre, they have been hydrated and are resting and receiving medical care". Jhonny will be able to see his two daughters again, one who is reportedly six years old and the other nine, and his wife, who is six months pregnant.

She lives with them in Isla Grande, one of the 28 islands of the Rosario Islands, near Cartagena. For his part, Alejandro, a migrant from Venezuela, will be able to return to Isla Grande, where he lives too, and provide peace of mind to his son, who is in Caracas, the capital of neighbouring Venezuela.