Stranded Australian Man and His Dog Rescued in the Middle of the Pacific

Photo from Vacation-Key.com

An Australian man and his dog were rescued in the Pacific after two months of being “Cast Away” like Tom Hanks. He set off at La Paz, Mexico in April on a catamaran journey to French Polynesia. He survived with rainwater and raw fish for months as during the trip, his vessel was damaged by a storm.

Tim Sshddock (51) from Sydney, and his pal, Bella have been waiting for the miracle and it came to them, Australia’s 9News reported.

On Wednesday, a helicopter conducting surveillance for a tuna trawler spotted the tiny catamaran bobbing in the middle of the vast ocean.

“Can I get your name, please?” a rescuer asks him in a video of the rescue, the Telegraph reported.

“I’m Tim Shaddock, I’m from Australia,” he replies.

Shaddock and Bella, who were taken aboard the trawler, appeared to be in remarkably good shape, given what they endured.

”I have been through a very difficult ordeal at sea,” he told 9News. “I’m just needing rest and good food because I have been alone at sea a long time. Otherwise, I’m in very good health.”

Mike Tipton, an ocean survival expert, attributed Shaddock’s endurance to a “combination of luck and skill.

“And also knowing, for example, as Tim did, that during the heat of the day, you need to protect yourself because the last thing you want when you’re in danger of becoming dehydrated is to be sweating,” he told the outlet.

Tipton said Shaddock was able to secure a fresh supply of water thanks to the climate and location.

“These voyages of any great length tend to occur in the Pacific,” he said. “If you look back through history, they tend to occur in warm environments, because if it was a cold environment, you don’t survive long enough.”

The expert described Shaddock’s rescue as a “needle in a haystack” scenario.