Four people from Bougainville are recovering in Solomon Islands after being adrift for a month at sea.
The National Referral Hospital in Honiara, Solomon Islands. Photo: RNZ/Pacific Koroi Hawkins
However, up to eight people who were also on the boat have died or gone missing, according to Solomon Star News.
The boat set out from Buka on 22 December to celebrate Christmas in the Carteret Islands.
But after the boat capsized, a number of the crew went missing.
Those who stayed with the boat were able to eventually remove the water from it and get back in, before drifting for weeks.
In late January, a fishing boat rescued them near New Caledonia.
At the weekend, the four were brought to the Solomons' capital of Honiara where they are being treated at the National Referral Hospital.
A survivor, Dominic Stally, said some people died in the boat, leaving the rest of the crew no option but to let the bodies go at sea.
Speaking of their ordeal, he revealed that a couple who died in the tragedy left a baby, who he held on to, but that child later died.
Stally said they only survived by eating and drinking floating coconuts and collecting rain water for drinking using a bowl that was also used for getting water out of the boat.
Meanwhile, PNG High Commissioner to Solomon Islands John C. Balavu has met with the survivors at the National Referral Hospital.
Balavu said clothes would be found for them and medical checks completed before arrangements can be made for their return to Bougainville.