
When Charlie Gray closes her eyes and thinks about where her boyfriend is right now, she pictures him on land stranded on a remote island off the coast of Japan with his 39 crewmates, waiting to be rescued.
27-year-old William Mainprize has been missing since September 2, 2020, when the live export ship he was working on sailed into the path of a typhoon in the East China Sea.
He is one of two Australians missing, the other is Queensland vet Lukas Orda, and so far there have only been two rescues and one confirmed fatality. But there are still four rafts and one lifeboat missing from the wreckage - that's 115 spots for just 40 people.
"Especially if they're spread out in those vessels they would have a decent amount of rations to last for a while," Charlie, 30, told Mamamia.
WATCH: Emma Orda, the wife of the other missing Australian, has issued this video statement. Post continues after video.
There's fishing gear on board, and apparently on the islands near where they capsised, there's plenty of small fish that the crew could catch.
"The real hope is that they've landed on one of the many small islands in the region and that they're just sustaining themselves until they're rescued. There's this concrete hope, but then this desperation that time is running out," she said.
Charlie wants to make it clear that she and Will's loved ones aren't just holding out hope "because we're so desperate to have him home."
"We also have real reason to believe that they're out there, even just based on the facts. In regards to this situation, he's highly trained and has so much experience in survival and in intense weather conditions. Myself and those who love him have a lot of confidence in his abilities to make it through a situation like this."
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