Tim Sheddock spent several weeks at sea, eating raw fish and drinking rainwater. in the middle of the Pacific after months of surviving on rainwater and raw fish in a tale of endurance compared to the movie Castaway.
Tim Sheddock and his dog Bella were rescued after two months of drifting. .
In April, he sailed off the coast of Mexico on his catamaran, intending to travel to French Polynesia, thousands of miles to the west. But after a few weeks of travel, a strong storm disabled the electronics on board.
Sheddock, 51, managed to survive by catching and eating raw fish, collecting rainwater and hiding from the sun inside. catamaran. He was eventually spotted by a helicopter operating a tuna trawler and rescued after a two-month drift.
When Mr. Sheddock from Sydney was found, he resembled Tom Hanks' wildly white-haired character from a 2000 blockbuster. Shipwrecked.
He had a big bushy beard and wore two hats to protect himself from the sun.
“May I have your name, please?” the rescuer asks him in the footage of the incident. “My name is Tim Sharrock and I'm from Australia,” he replies.
Tim Shaddock has been compared to Tom Hanks& # 39; his character in Castaway Credit: 9 NEWS
He and his dog were taken aboard a fishing trawler and received medical treatment.
“I went through a very difficult ordeal at sea,” he told Australian television channel 9News. “I just need rest and good food because I have been alone at sea for a long time. Otherwise, I am in very good health.”
Mr. Shaddock is in surprisingly good physical shape despite weeks of testing, said an ocean survival expert.
“It's a combination of luck and skill ,” said Professor Mike Tipton. “And also knowing, like Tim did, that in the heat of the day you need to protect yourself because the last thing you want to do when you’re in danger of getting dehydrated is sweat.”
Stumbling a trawler and its helicopter onto a catamaran in the middle of the ocean was like finding a “needle in a haystack.”
“People need to understand how small the boat is and how vast the Pacific Ocean is. The chances of anyone being found are very low,” he said.
A trawler takes Mr. Shaddock and his dog ashore off the coast of Mexico.
Professor Tipton compared this story with the real version of Castaway and said that the company Bella provided would be a huge help.
“I think it might have made a difference. You live so much from day to day, and you need to have a very positive mental attitude to get through such an ordeal and not give up. jpg” /> Tim Shaddock says his raw food experience while battling colon cancer has served him well. Photo: 9 NEWS
In an apparently hopeless situation, psychological discipline would also be key, according to Professor Tipton.
“Having a plan, rationing yourself in terms of water and food, is really the secret to long survival journeys. Just imagine how dark and lonely it will be there at night.”
Mr. Shaddock worked in the IT industry before retiring to bushwalking and sailing. Friends said he was always looking for a new challenge. “He has some money, he gets bored, and he starts doing new things,” said one of them.
Twenty years ago he was diagnosed with bowel cancer. He said he managed to beat the disease through periods of fasting and a raw food diet – ironically similar to the regimen he survived during his weeks drifting at sea.
“When my health was on the brink of critical stage, it included a lot of fasting, drinking juices and smoothies. I remember at one point spending more than three months living solely on green vegetable juice,” he told The Raw Food Kitchen website.
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