Surfer 27 hours at sea: A South African surfer was rescued after he spent 27 hours floating in the ocean near Indonesia.
Brett Archibald, 50, from Cape Town, apparently fell off a boat while it was at sea on Wednesday, reported IOL News. He was on a surfing expedition in the Mentawai Islands near the island of Sumatra.
Archibald didn’t show up for breakfast in the morning, triggering fears among his friends, who knew something wasn’t right.
Indonesian and Australian rescuers then sprung into action to try and find him.
Archibald was found in the ocean lying on his back around 12 miles from where he had fallen overboard, according to IOL.
“Brett Archibald has boarded the Barenjoey 20 mins ago,” wrote All Aboard Travel on its Facebook page. “He is alive. A bit sunburnt and dehydrated. He was floating alone. The boat is taking him to the Indies Trader III so that he can phone his wife.”
When he was out at sea, Archibald was stung by jelly fish, sunburned, and was nearly attacked by seagulls.
“They eventually pinpointed the noise and found me in the binoculars and came and picked me up. I tell you, I'd never been so happy to see a boat in my entire life, even if it was full of Aussies! I’m a converted Aussie, I love these guys,” Archibald was quoted by Surfer Today as saying.
The publication said that Archibald fell over went he went up on the deck after a bout of sea sickness in the middle of the night.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that he continued on with his surfing trip and reportedly said he did not travel thousands of miles to Indonesia just to tread water.
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