It seems like a story by the legendary writer Gabriel García Márquez, who wrote chronicles about a shipwrecked man that later became a successful book.
On this occasion his name is Timothy Shaddock, 54, who, accompanied by his dog Bella, was rescued by some Mexican fishermen after being adrift for three months. A storm damaged his yacht and forced him to live off raw fish and rainwater.
Timothy Lyndsay Shaddock, 54, disembarked in the Mexican city of Manzanillo after being examined on board the boat that rescued him, the Maria Delia. “I’m feeling all right,” a smiling Shaddock, bearded and thin, told reporters on the dock in the port city about 340km (210 miles) west of Mexico City. “I’m feeling a lot better than I was, I tell you.
“To the captain and fishing company that saved my life, I’m just so grateful. I’m alive and I didn’t really think I’d make it,” he said, adding that his “amazing” dog Bella was also doing well.
Shaddock described himself as a quiet person who loves being alone on the ocean. Asked why he had set out in April from Mexico’s Baja Peninsula to cross the Pacific Ocean to French Polynesia, he was initially at a loss. “I’m not sure I have the answer to that but I very much enjoy sailing and I love the people of the sea,” he said. “It’s the people of the sea that make us all come together. The ocean is in us. We are the ocean.”
The Sydney man’s catamaran set sail from the Mexican city of La Paz but was crippled by bad weather weeks into the journey. He said the last time he had seen land was in early May as he sailed out of the Sea of Cortez. There was a full moon.
Shaddock said he had been well-provisioned but a storm had knocked out his electronics and ability to cook. He and Bella survived on raw fish.
“There were many, many, many bad days and many good days,” he said. “The energy, the fatigue is the hardest part.”
I spent the time fixing things and stayed positive by going into the water to “just enjoy being in the water”.
Asked what meal he was looking forward to the most, he replied: “Tuna sushi.”
When the tuna boat’s helicopter spotted Shaddock’s catamaran about 1,930km from land, it was the first sign of humans he had seen in three months. The pilot tossed him a drink then flew away, returning with a speedboat from the María Delia.
Grupomar, which operates the fishing fleet, did not specify when the rescue occurred. But it said Shaddock and his dog had been in a “precarious” state when found, lacking provisions and shelter, and that the tuna boat’s crew had given them medical attention, food and hydration.
Bella had been an immediate hit with the crew, Shaddock said. He also explained how he and the dog met.
“Bella sort of found me in the middle of Mexico,” he said. “She’s Mexican. She’s the spirit of the middle of the country and ella would n’t let me go. I tried to find a home for her three times and she just kept following me on to the water. She’s a lot braver than I am, that’s for sure.”
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