Lost at sea for months on a disabled catamaran, with no way to cook and no source of fresh water but the rain, Australian Timothy Shaddock expected to die.
There was a lot to like about the experience, he said. Like when he would plunge into the Pacific Ocean for a swim, or when his dog, Bella, would stir him to keep going. “I did enjoy being at sea, I enjoy being out there,” he said.
He recalled the full moon in early May that illuminated his turn away from Mexico's Baja Peninsula, his last sight of land until he came ashore on Tuesday.
Mr Shaddock, 54, smiling and good humoured, was the typical image of a castaway, with a long blond beard and emaciated appearance, as he joked with reporters on Tuesday, standing in front of the fishing boat that rescued him at Manzanillo, on Mexico's Pacific coast.
He granted that there were “many, many, many bad days,” but declined to elaborate.
Mr Shaddock, from Sydney, and his dog left north-west Mexico in a catamaran in late April, he said, planning to sail to French Polynesia.
A few weeks into his 6,000km voyage, he was struck by a storm, which disabled his catamaran and left him with no electronics and no way to raise the alarm or cook.
Images of the boat taken during his rescue showed it without any sails.
He and Bella survived by fishing and eating their catch raw. They drank rainwater.
'I found a lot of happiness'
Sailors, especially those travelling alone, get used to living – and sleeping – in the midst of constant work and whatever challenges the sea throws their way, and Mr Shaddock said he spent most of his time fixing things on the boat.
“The fatigue is the hardest part,” he said.
“I would try and find the happiness inside myself, and I found a lot of that alone at sea.”
A helicopter from tuna fishing boat the Maria Delia was his first sign of humans in three months. He was 1,900km from the nearest land when suddenly the helicopter appeared.
The pilot tossed him a drink before flying off. A short while later, the crew reached him in a speed boat.
“It made me feel like I was going to live,” he said.
Part of that encounter was captured on video.
In the footage, the sailors circle the bobbing catamaran, a flock of white seabirds perched on its two hulls as Mr Shaddock scrambles to his feet in the stern. Bella wags her tail.
A crew member asks Mr Shaddock if he speaks English, if he’s OK, and if he has any drugs or weapons on board. Mr Shaddock initially just hoarsely repeats: “Thank you, thank you.”
But he is coherent, welcomes them to inspect the boat and hands over the knife dangling from his neck.
Grupomar, the company that owns the tuna boat, said its crew gave Mr Shaddock and Bella food and medical attention.
Mr Shaddock said the Maria Delia became his “land” and the crew his family.
He said a lesson he took from the experience was a feeling that “your family is everyone and your family is all of nature”.
Bella was an immediate hit with the crew. Mr Shaddock said he met the dog in Mexico and even though he tried to find her a home on land, she kept following him back to sea. “She’s a lot braver than I am, that’s for sure,” he said.
Bella was not allowed to disembark on Tuesday until Mr Shaddock had driven away. The Australian had chosen Genaro Rosales, a fisherman from Mazatlan on the Maria Delia’s crew, to adopt Bella on condition that he took good care of her.
Mr Shaddock plans to return to Australia to spend time with family and friends, but said that he enjoyed solitude. Still, he said, it might be a while before he goes back to sea.
People adrift at sea have occasionally survived much longer, but maritime accidents often do not end happily.
In 2014, a Salvadoran fisherman washed ashore on the tiny Pacific atoll of Ebon in the Marshall Islands after drifting at sea for 13 months. Jose Salvador Alvarenga left Mexico for a day of shark fishing in December 2012 and got lost during bad weather. He said he survived on fish, birds and turtles until his boat washed ashore 8,850km away.
In other cases, disabled boats are found without survivors, or are lost entirely.
Antonio Suarez, Grupomar’s president, said on Tuesday that the voyage may have been the Maria Delia's final trip before he modernised the company’s fleet. The boat is its smallest and is more than 50 years old.
If so, it would be a “marvellous farewell, saving human lives”, he said.
Mr Shaddock hugged Mr Suarez in gratitude, and Mr Suarez invited him to go for a meal in celebration.
When asked what he would like to eat back on land, Mr Shaddock, smiling and jovial as he slid into a waiting car, said “tuna sushi”.
