Australian man lives on raw fish for months lost at sea with dog

[Piper]

MANZANILLO, Mexico (AP) — Lost at sea for months on a disabled catamaran, with no way to cook and no source of fresh water but the rain, Australian Timothy Shaddock said he expected to die.

There was a lot to like about the experience, he said. Like when he would plunge into the sea for a swim, or when his dog, Bella, would stir him to keep going. “I did enjoy being at sea, I enjoy being out there,” he said. He recalled the full moon in early May that illuminated his turn away from the Baja Peninsula, his last sight of land until he came ashore Tuesday.

Shaddock, 54, smiling and good humored, was the living image of a castaway, with a long blonde beard and emaciated appearance, as he joked with a group of reporters Tuesday, standing in front of the fishing boat that rescued him at a port on Mexico’s Pacific coast.

He granted that there were “many, many, many bad days,” but declined to elaborate.

Shaddock and his dog left northwest Mexico in a catamaran in late April, he said, planning to sail to French Polynesia. A few weeks into his voyage, he was struck by a storm, which disabled his catamaran and left him with no electronics and no way to cook. He declined to describe the storm or the damage in detail, but images of the boat taken during the rescue showed it with no sail.


He and Bella survived by fishing and eating their catch raw. Rain provided their drinking water.

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Adrift for months, Australian and his dog lived on raw fish until Mexican fishermen rescued them

 

[Strom]

MANZANILLO, Mexico (AP) — Lost at sea for months on a disabled catamaran, with no way to cook and no source of fresh water but the rain, Australian Timothy Shaddock said he expected to die.

There was a lot to like about the experience, he said. Like when he would plunge into the sea for a swim, or when his dog, Bella, would stir him to keep going. “I did enjoy being at sea, I enjoy being out there,” he said. He recalled the full moon in early May that illuminated his turn away from the Baja Peninsula, his last sight of land until he came ashore Tuesday.

Shaddock, 54, smiling and good humored, was the living image of a castaway, with a long blonde beard and emaciated appearance, as he joked with a group of reporters Tuesday, standing in front of the fishing boat that rescued him at a port on Mexico’s Pacific coast.

He granted that there were “many, many, many bad days,” but declined to elaborate.

Shaddock and his dog left northwest Mexico in a catamaran in late April, he said, planning to sail to French Polynesia. A few weeks into his voyage, he was struck by a storm, which disabled his catamaran and left him with no electronics and no way to cook. He declined to describe the storm or the damage in detail, but images of the boat taken during the rescue showed it with no sail.


He and Bella survived by fishing and eating their catch raw. Rain provided their drinking water.

See more here:

Adrift for months, Australian and his dog lived on raw fish until Mexican fishermen rescued them

Too bad he gave his dog away after surviving the ordeal.

 

[kyredneck]

He and Bella survived by fishing and eating their catch raw.

SASHIMI! ...now, where's the soy sauce and wasabi...

 

[David Kent]

I read a book some years ago by Lawrence D Hills, I think it was called Lands of the Morning. In it he mentions people who he calls "Culture Heroes ". Some of legends in the South Americas of people who landed on the shores. In legends from various parts of the continent there were similar accounts of people landing and improving things like the the maize crops, and livestock through breeding. They mostly seemed to be bearded and white and had a whistling language, and didn't have the wheel and practised head surgery. I forget the actual word. From that he considered they came from the pre Spanish Canary islands which matched all those things. He said that when he went to the Canary islands his hotel ordered a taxi by whistling which arrived on time the next day.

He presumed they were fishermen who were blown across the Atlantic by storms and lived on raw fish, the fluids being much less salty than sea water.