The Australian sailor who spent months adrift aimlessly in the Pacific Ocean thanked his rescuers Tuesday and vowed he’ll get back on the water, despite his terrifying adventure.
While Tim Shaddock, 51, has no high seas adventures planned right now, the lucky sailor insisted he will never give up the hobby.
“Look, I’ll always be in the water,” he told reporters in Manzanillo, Mexico. “I just love nature.”
Sporting a shaggy beard, Shaddock washed ashore for the first time in three months and expressed his gratitude to the fishermen who found him and his dog.
“Look, the captain and this fishing [crew] — [they] he saved my life, what do you say?” Shaddock said. “I’m so grateful. I am alive.
Shaddock and his dog Bella left La Paz, Mexico, three months ago before their journey took a near-death turn a month later.
That’s when a storm hit his white catamaran, destroying all electronic devices, the sailor said. That incident two months ago was near fatal.
“I didn’t think I would survive the storm,” Shaddock said. “Now I’m really fine.”
Shaddock had charted a voyage to French Polynesia before the storm blew them off course.
The man and dog reportedly survived on raw fish and rainwater. The lost sailor said that he avoided sunburn by taking shelter under the canopy of his ship.
They floated aimlessly in the Pacific, apparently with no hope of survival, for two months before a crew of fishermen from Mexico found them, the sailor and fishing company said.
A helicopter, scouting on behalf of the tuna boat, first spotted Shaddock, leading to his discovery and rescue like a needle in a haystack, they said.
“You don’t have to hear it from me. The message is that we are all here for each other. All sailors help each other,” Shaddock said. “Even if you don’t sail, I’m here for you too. We’re all here for each other.”
Shaddock and Bella were pulled out of the water by the trawler and taken back to Mexico.
“I just came to hug Timothy, greet the crew and congratulate them,” said Antonio Suárez, president of Grupomar, the company that operates the trawler Shaddock found. “It is a great pleasure, it is a day of happiness.”
Shaddock spoke while wearing a red baseball cap emblazoned with “Tuny,” the food brand of Grupomar de Suárez.
“We culminated in what we can call an adventure, to help an adventurer, who had many more problems than us,” Suárez told reporters in Spanish.
This is a developing story. Please check back here for updates.
Mithil Aggarwal and sandra lilley contributed.
