MANZANILLO, Mexico (AP) — An Australian sailor who was rescued by a Mexican tuna boat after being adrift at sea with his dog for three months stepped foot on dry land Tuesday for the first time since their ordeal began.
After a visit from a doctor on board the Maria Delia Tuna, Timothy Lyndsay Shaddock, 54, and his dog, Bella, disembarked in the Mexican port city of Manzanillo from the fishing boat that rescued them.
“I’m feeling alright. I’m feeling a lot better than I was, I tell ya,” Shaddock told reporters on the dock.
“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,” Shaddock said, adding that he and his “amazing” dog are both doing well now and that he still loves the ocean.
Before they left the vessel, the crew posed for photos on board while holding Bella.
The Sydney man's catamaran was crippled by bad weather weeks after it set sail in April from the Mexican city of La Paz for French Polynesia, reported The Daily Telegraph, a Sydney newspaper.
Shaddock told Australia’s Nine News television that he and his dog had survived on raw fish and rain water after a storm damaged his vessel and wiped out its electronics.
The tuna boat spotted Shaddock's boat about 1,200 miles (1,930 kilometers) from land, Grupomar, which operates the fishing fleet, said in a statement. It didn't specify when the rescue occurred, but said Shaddock and his dog were in a “precarious” state when found, lacking provisions and shelter, and that the tuna boat’s crew gave them medical attention, food and hydration.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
MANZANILLO, Mexico (AP) — An Australian sailor who was rescued by a Mexican tuna boat after being adrift at sea with his dog for three months will step foot on dry land Tuesday for the first time since their ordeal began.
Timothy Lyndsay Shaddock, 54, was aboard his crippled catamaran Aloha Toa in the Pacific Ocean about 1,200 miles (1,930 kilometers) from land when the crew of the fishing boat from the Grupomar fleet spotted them, the company said in a statement.
Shaddock and his dog, Bella, were in a “precarious” state when found, lacking provisions and shelter, and the tuna boat's crew gave them medical attention, food and hydration, the company said.
Grupomar did not say what day Shaddock was rescued or when he had started his voyage. However, the Australian and his dog were expected to arrive late Tuesday morning on the Maria Delia Tuna in the Mexican port of Manzanillo, which is about 210 miles (337 kilometers) west of Mexico City.
Antonio Suárez Gutiérrez, Grupomar's founder and president, said he was proud of his boat's captain, Oscar Meza Oregón, and crew, praising them for their humanity in saving the life of someone in trouble.
Shaddock told Australia's Nine News television that he and his dog had survived on raw fish and rain water after a storm damaged his vessel and wiped out its electronics.
“I’ve been through a very difficult ordeal at sea and I’m just needing rest and good food because I’ve been alone at sea a long time," a thin and bearded Shaddock said in video broadcast by Nine on Sunday night Australian time.
“Otherwise, I’m in very good health,” Shaddock added.
The Sydney resident and his dog set sail from the Mexican city of La Paz for French Polynesia in April, but bad weather struck within weeks and left the vessel adrift, Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported.
In photographs of the rescue provided by Grupomar to The Associated Press, a smiling, bearded and thin Shaddock is seen with a blood pressure cuff around his arm, holding a box of pain medication inside the fishing boat’s cabin. In others, Bella is stretched out on the deck. The catamaran floated nearby without a visible sail.
