I find it incredible that their drifting sent them in the same general direction that Thor Heyerdahl [0] suspected (and verified in the Kon-Tiki expedition) that one would go without any extra power of their own.
The fact that a man who didn't even plan for the trip (or have any provisions) made it out alive even though he was virtually alone for the entire trip (his partner died after 2 months) leads me to believe that Thor was mostly right, and that South Americans did indeed travel to Polynesia and beyond probably more often than we originally thought.
What an amazing story.