An Australian surfer who helped rescue a South African man after he was lost in Indonesian waters for 27 hours has told of the moment he and eight mates spotted the man, still alive, bobbing in the ocean.
When Perth lawyer Colin Chenu and his mates saw ''a red head and a white arm waving'' - 19 kilometres from the Mentawai Islands, off the west coast of Sumatra - they threw a lifebuoy into the water and jumped over the side of their Sydney-owned charter boat and swam to the stricken man, who was dehydrated and suffering a gash from a seagull attack. He had also been circled by a shark and stung by jellyfish.
Embracing his rescuers, the South African man, whose wife had been told he was dead, said: ''I love you Aussies, I'm never going to bag you guys ever again.''
Mr Chenu, 49, said: ''It was a feeling of sheer elation, when we dragged him onto the boat, we were all pumping the air, screaming.
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''He was a pretty tough bugger - a surfer and mountain biker, and he told us he had been treading water the whole time in rough seas,'' Mr Chenu told Fairfax Media from Tua Paget. ''He said he'd been seasick the night before and vomited so much he blacked out and fell overboard from his boat, the Nagalout. He said he woke up in the water and saw his boat sailing into the distance.''
Mr Chenu, a father of four, was on a surfing holiday with eight mates off the Mentawai Islands. They were on their way back to Australia when one of their Indonesian crew heard from the harbourmaster at Tua Paget that a man had been lost at sea. The boat's skipper, Tony Eltherington, sprung into action and began a search and rescue effort for the missing man, Brett Archibald.
''Eltherington got the co-ordinates of where the man supposedly fell overboard and insisted we mount a search,'' said Mr Chenu. ''We headed out in terrible weather in a small 25-foot boat and spent about four hours looking, but we were forced to turn back before dark. It was blowing 20 knots, there were so many peaks and troughs and we thought, 'This poor bastard is out in this?'''
The next day, the wind abated and visibility was much better.
''About 4am the next day - 24 hours after Archibald had gone overboard - the skipper wanted to give it one last try and told us we'd be at the spot by daybreak,'' Mr Chenu said. ''The one saving grace was that the water is warm. If this had happened in Australian waters, he would never have survived.''
The men were taking turns with the binoculars when, at 7.15am, one of the Indonesian crew yelled out: ''There he is!'''
Suffering a bloody nose and shrivelled fingers, Mr Archibald collapsed into the arms of his rescuers and then found the strength to climb onto the deck of the Barrenjoey amid cheers from the Australians.
Heaping praise on the surfers who didn't give up, he was examined by a specialist neurologist among the Aussie surfing group, and was fed and rehydrated.
Mr Archibald then called his distraught wife in Cape Town, who was being consoled by friends and family after the South African embassy had advised her that her husband had been lost at sea.
The Perth mates were on the surfing trip to celebrate Simon Carlin's 50th birthday - and they found Mr Archibald on the day of the birthday.
Source : http://www.smh.com.au/national/australian-tells-of-miracle-rescue-at-sea-20130420-2i72z.html
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