A naked bloke has been miraculously rescued from a tiny home-made wooden boat after it capsized at sea.
Tom Robinson, 24, decided to make his own wooden boat and sail from Peru to Cains in Australia. The Brisbane-native nearly succeeded, but was failed at the final hurdle of his journey across the Pacific Ocean after getting into difficulties around 100 nautical miles from Vanuatu.
He was found stranded yesterday (Friday, October 6) by the P&O Pacific Explorer cruise ship, naked and sunburned. It is not clear exactly what happened to his boat, but he was able to activate a distress beacon before the seven metre boat called Maiwar overturned.
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The call was picked up by the New Caledonia Marine Rescue Co-ordination Centre, and a French plane spotted Tom standing on the top of the capsized boat, which led to the Pacific Explorer taking a detour of about 200 kilometres, rescuing the bloke about 13 hours after he set off the distress call.
Writing on Tom's blog on his behalf, a spokesman said: “He was being checked in the sick bay, and sounded well after a precarious night. Tom explained that his demise was caused by an unexpectedly large wave that came through the main hatch and flooded the cabin. Our sincere thanks go to the Australian, New Caledonian and Vanuatuan authorities who all had important roles to play in his rescue; and to the captain and crew of Pacific Explorer who literally went out of their way to pick up Tom.”
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And, having been checked over and given permission to travel the rest of his journey on the P&O ship, he later said in a statement: “I'd just like to say a huge thank you to all the crew on P&O Pacific Explorer whose seamanship and professionalism ensured a safe rescue.
“Once aboard I was treated with the utmost courtesy and kindness by the medical staff.Many, many thanks to P&O for everything they have done for me.”
The fate of the boat, however, has not been confirmed.
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