A man has survived clinging to a piece of debris for nearly 24 hours in shark- and crocodile-infested waters in the Torres Strait after his boat was swamped by waves.
He was spotted by a rescue jet and winched to safety just in time.
The man in his 30s was found after spending a night clinging to debris, enduring storms and avoiding sharks.
“It’s extremely lucky to the point that it’s a miracle to be honest,” Queensland Police acting sergeant Jason Jesse said.
“There was gusts of 40 knots of wind, it was the storms, I imagine the sea-state that gentleman would have been in would have been pretty horrible.”
The man set off from Moa Island on Tuesday headed for Sue Islet but he got into trouble while refuelling in the open water near Mount Ernest Island, where his dinghy was swamped by waves.
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“He stopped to refuel his boat and in the process of refuelling his boat, a wave had swamped the back of his boat and partially filled it full of water which caused it to capsize,” Jesse said.
His overturned dinghy was found the next day after a massive search.
Miraculously, the man was spotted floating in the ocean two kilometres from his boat.
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“If he would have been in possession of an EPIRB (radio beacon) and would have been able to activate it, I would say, most definitely, he would have been rescued within a couple of hours,” Jesse said.
The man is recovering in hospital.
