The Australian castaway who drifted for two months in the Pacific with his dog Bella, feeding on raw fish, arrived in Mexico on Tuesday aboard the fishing boat that saved his life, AFP noted.
“I’m just so grateful,” said Timothy Shaddock as he descended from the tuna boat “Maria Delia”, white beard collar, shaggy faded blond hair, blue eyes, drawn features but smiling.
Australian media announced on Monday that they had located the 50-year-old aboard his catamaran Aloha Toa.
The Australian “was more than 1,200 nautical miles (about 2,200 km) from land,” said the fishing company Grupomar, which rescued him, in a statement.
“I’m alive,” he rejoiced, as if he could hardly believe it. “I didn’t think I would make it, especially with the arrival of the hurricane”, frequent at this time of year in the Pacific.
“But now I’m fine,” he assured reporters who were waiting for him on a dock in the port of Manzanillo, in western Mexico.
The castaway paid tribute to his little dog Bella, whom an AFP journalist saw on board the fishing boat.
“I’m just grateful that she’s alive. She’s a lot braver than me…she’s amazing,” he said.
Bella had followed him aboard his catamaran as the sailor had sought to find him a foster family on several occasions, he said.
Tim Shaddock and Bella had left the seaside town of La Paz, Mexico in April and planned to travel around 6,000 km before dropping anchor in French Polynesia.
But rough seas quickly damaged the catamaran and disabled the electronic equipment.
“The fatigue is the hardest,” he continued of his lonely drift on the high seas. “I was trying to find happiness deep inside of me.”
“My state of health deteriorated at one point. I was very hungry”, he detailed. “I fished a lot”.
“When the going gets tough, you have to survive,” explained this Pacific Robinson. “And when you are saved, you want to live”.
“I want to see my friends and my family,” he said, wearing a beret bearing the logo of the company that owns the Mexican fishing boat.
“Life is beautiful and we had the responsibility to save the life of a human being and the little dog that accompanied him,” said Grupomar company president Antonio Suarez.
“We have a medical service on board our boats,” he added, visibly delighted with this communication operation. “He fell into good hands.”
The boat that rescued the shipwrecked man is the smallest and oldest in Grupomar’s fleet, he said. It was probably his last outing at sea.
Timothy Shaddock is 51 according to Australian media, 54 according to the statement from the fishing company.
“I like being alone on the ocean,” he confessed. “Probably not” to the point of going back to sea right away, he says.
7/18/2023 22:55:47 – Mexico (AFP) – © 2023 AFP