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Adrift in the blue vastness of the Pacific Ocean with only a dog named Bella for company, Australian sailor Timothy Shaddock didn’t think he was going to survive.
A storm had hit weeks into the Sydney man’s planned sail from La Paz, Mexico, to French Polynesia, disabling his catamaran and leaving him without fresh water or a way of cooking. Shaddock reportedly lived off rainwater and raw fish until finally, about three months after the storm, he was rescued by a Mexican tuna trawler.
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The 54-year-old sailor touched dry land for the first time Tuesday in Manzanillo, Mexico, walking down a gangway from the boat that saved him, the Maria Delia, and flashing a thumbs-up sign. Shaddock sported a shaggy blond beard tinged with white and a red baseball cap bearing the logo for “Tuny,” the brand of canned tuna sold by Grupomar, the company that spotted him about 1,200 miles from shore.
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He appeared to be in good spirits, hugging Grupomar’s CEO and smiling as he spoke to reporters.
“To the captain and this fishing company that saved my life, I mean, what do you say?” Shaddock said. “I’m just so grateful. I’m alive, and I really didn’t think I’d make it. So thank you — thank you so much.”
Details of all he endured are still trickling out. Shaddock described himself as having a soft spot for solitude and sailing; he said that while he could not fully explain why he made his journey, he loves “the people of the sea” and believes “the ocean is in us,” the Associated Press reported.
Shaddock said he set sail from Mexico in April in a catamaran named “Aloha Toa.” By his side was Bella — a dog, he told reporters, that had “sort of found me in the middle of Mexico.”
“She wouldn’t let me go,” Shaddock said Tuesday. “I tried to find a home for her maybe three times, and she just kept following me onto the water.”
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About a month into the duo’s several thousand-nautical mile trip, disaster struck. The storm crippled the Aloha Toa, taking out its electronics. Shaddock last saw land in May, the Associated Press reported. There was a full moon at the time.
He found moments of levity, taking solace in Bella’s company — “That dog is something else, you know?” he said — and swimming in the sea.
“I would try and find the happiness inside myself, and I found a lot of that alone at sea,” Shaddock said.
Yet he was hungry and in poor health and questioning whether he would survive when he was spotted by a helicopter accompanying the Maria Delia in search of tuna.
In a moment captured on camera, crew members in a speed boat made their way through the waves toward him. Shaddock clutched his heart. Looking and sounding overcome, he repeated the words, “Thank you.” Bella wagged her tail.
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A photograph shared by Grupomar showed a thin Shaddock smiling aboard the Maria Delia, a blood pressure cuff around his arm. In another photo, he sat beside Bella, his hand on her side. The company said it had contacted authorities and the Australian Embassy so he could return home.
Un buque atunero de nuestra flota rescató a un náufrago australiano tras 3 meses en alta mar que se encontraba a más de 1200 millas de tierra. Gracias a la experiencia de la tripulación guiada por su Capitán Oscar Meza Oregón, recibió la atención médica, pic.twitter.com/YYJr5XH22u
— Grupomar？ (@Grupomar) July 18, 2023
Shaddock and Bella posed for photographs with their rescuers Tuesday, the crew grinning as they held the dog. Bella was popular with crew members, and Shaddock chose one of them to adopt her on the condition that she would be well taken care of, the Associated Press reported.
“She’s a beautiful animal,” he said. “I’m just grateful she’s alive. She’s a lot braver than I am, that’s for sure.”
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