Key Points
- Sydney sailor and his dog were found alive after months lost at sea.
- They survived on raw fish and rainwater after their boat and communications technology were damaged in a storm.
- They're the latest extraordinary story of Australians defying the odds and extreme conditions to survive at sea.
Last week, a Sydney sailor and his dog were found alive after three months lost at sea.
Tim Shaddock and his dog Bella spent three months in the Pacific Ocean after their boat and communications technology were damaged during a storm.
They were supposed to be travelling from Mexico to French Polynesia.
They survived off rainwater and fish and kept sheltered from the elements as much as possible.
Tim Shaddock and his dog Bella survived on raw fish and rainwater for three months. Source: Supplied / Nine News
“I’ve been through a very difficult ordeal at sea,” Shaddock said in a video obtained by Nine News.
“I’m just needing rest and good food.”
Doctors monitoring Shaddock told Nine News he was now eating small meals and his vital signs all looked stable.
Shaddock’s journey - while remarkable - is not the only time an Australian has defied the odds to survive at sea.
Forty six days lost at sea
In 2005, Australian man Ben Tooki was lost at sea near the Kiribati Islands for 46 days and managed to survive despite sharks, storms, and near-starvation.
Tooki had been visiting the islands with his family and had set off with his uncle and a friend in a dinghy for an afternoon trip.
They found themselves in the eye of a storm.
Ben Tooki spent 46 days lost at sea off the Kiribati Islands. Source: Supplied / 60 minutes
His family set out air and water searches, but they failed to locate the men and their small boat.
They told the Nine Network's 60 Minutes in 2005 that they had set off with a bunch of bananas and bottle of water, but when their supplies ran out, they resorted to eating fish and small sharks when they could catch them.
Tooki claimed a number of boats had gone past them but did not stop.
After seven weeks, a trawler appeared on the horizon, and Tooki was able to wave the ship down.
They had drifted 250 nautical miles from their destination.
Ben Tooki's family spent weeks sending search parties out to the ocean when he was lost at sea. Source: Supplied / 60 minutes
Fishermen lost at sea for almost a week
In 2020, two South Australian fishermen spent almost a week lost at sea.
Derek Robinson and Tony Higgins had set off on a trip from Coffin Bay to Goolwa, about 300km away.
The day after they departed, they contacted a friend and reported engine troubles.
They were not heard from again and were declared missing two days later.
A large-scale search began but found no signs of life.
Derek Robinson (left) and Tony Higgins (right) went missing off the South Australian coast, sparking a massive four-day search in 2020. Source: AAP / SA Police
When they made it back to dry land and reunited with family and friends, Robinson said he felt "very emotional".
"I’m glad to be back and I’m on steady ground - but it just feels like my legs are wobbling all over the place,” he told reporters at the time.
"It was rough, it was rocky," Mr Robinson said of his days out at sea.
“I don’t think I felt scared - just isolated. It felt like the world didn’t exist, because we were out in the middle of nowhere."
A capsized boat, hypothermia, and a broken leg
In 2021, Glenn Anderson - an experienced yachtsman - took his daughter Ruby, then 11, on a sailing trip. It was supposed to be a special adventure.
They were travelling along the Western Australian coast with three crew members when a wave capsized their yacht.
Ruby was thrown overboard and broke her leg in the process.
Glenn Anderson and his daughter Ruby were in freezing water for four hours after their yacht capsized. Source: Supplied / 60 minutes
The group activated Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) to alert rescuers to their situation and location.
They initially tried to stay together, but then separated, with the crew swimming toward the closest land and taking the EPIRB with them.
The Andersons, who were limited by injury, stayed with the current and headed toward another shore.
They ended up stuck in freezing water for four hours, with Ruby developing hypothermia.
The EPIRB signal was picked up, and local rescue volunteers and fisheries officers tracked down the three crew members, but the father and daughter were nowhere to be seen.
It was through sheer luck that one of the rescuers began feeling sick, so they changed their direction of travel and stumbled across the people they were looking for.
One of the rescuers described Glenn's efforts as a "miracle".
"For him to hold that little girl up for so long and swim so far is quite incredible," he told 60 Minutes in 2021.
"I think he was really brave and smart about it," Ruby said on the program.
"He just helped me through it and handled it really well."
