Ekkapol Chantawong, left, the assistant coach of the soccer team whose members are trapped in the cave, posed with members of the team in a photograph posted on Facebook.CreditFacebook/Ekkapol Chantawong
The parents of 12 boys stranded inside a northern Thailand cave have written to their children for the first time and to the coach who led them inside, telling him: “Please don’t blame yourself.”
“To all the kids,” one letter, written by the mother of Nattawut Takamsai, 14, said. “We are not mad at you at all. Do take good care of yourself. Don’t forget to cover yourself with blankets as the weather is cold. We’re worried. You will come out soon.”
She wrote to Ekkapol Chantawong, the coach: “We want you to know that no parents are angry with you at all, so don’t you worry about that.”
The notes were delivered by Thai navy Seals who picked up letters written in return by the boys to their parents. Chanin Wiboonrungrueng, 12, told his mother and father not to worry. “I’m fine,” he wrote. “Please tell Yod to take me out to a fried chicken shop.”
The release of the handwritten notes illustrated the stakes of a race against time that has captivated Thailand and the world since Monday, when the boys were discovered sheltering on a muddy ledge two miles (3.2km) inside the cave.
The letters expressed hopes Thai authorities would soon find a way to free the boys before the arrival of monsoon rains that could seal the group inside the cave until as late as January, authorities said on Saturday.
“I’m fine but it’s a little bit cold,” said a letter from Duangpetch Promthep, 13. “Don’t worry and don’t forget my birthday.”
The operation to rescue the boys has been blessed by unseasonably dry weather in Mae Sai, which has allowed authorities to attempt their ideal escape plan: draining the cave enough to allow the boys to walk out.
But draining is taking longer than expected – water levels are dropping about 1cm an hour – and authorities estimated they had at most four days until torrential rain flooded the cave complex again.
“[The next] three to four days from now is the most favourable time for the operation and rescue mission using one of the action plans,” Narongsak Osatanakorn, governor of Chiang Rai province, told a press conference at the cave site. “If we wait too long, we don’t know how much rainwater will come.”
The children are yet to learn to breathe in scuba masks and the cave is still not considered dry enough that they could leave without submerging themselves.
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