The 54-year-old sailor touched dry land for the very first time Tuesday in Manzanillo, Mexico, walking down a gangway from the boat that saved him, the Maria Delia, and flashing a thumbs-up indication. Shaddock sported a shaggy blonde beard tinged with white and a red baseball cap bearing the logo design for “Tuny,” the brand name of canned tuna offered by Grupomar, the business that found him about 1,200 miles from coast.
He seemed in good spirits, hugging Grupomar’s CEO and smiling as he talked to press 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 withstood are still dripping out. Shaddock explained himself as having a soft area for privacy and cruising; he said that while he might not completely explain why he made his journey, he likes “the people of the sea” and thinks “the ocean is in us,” the Associated Press reported.
Shaddock said he set sail from Mexico in April in a catamaran called “Aloha Toa.” By his side was Bella — a dog, he informed press 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.”
About a month into the duo’s a number of thousand-nautical mile journey, catastrophe struck. The storm paralyzed the Aloha Toa, getting its electronic devices. Shaddock last saw land in May, the Associated Press reported. There was a moon at the time.
He discovered minutes of levity, taking solace in Bella’s business — “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 starving and in poor health and questioning whether he would endure when he was found by a helicopter accompanying the Maria Delia searching for tuna.
In a minute recorded on electronic camera, team members in a speed boat made their method through the waves towards him. Shaddock clutched his heart. Looking and sounding conquered, he duplicated the words, “Thank you.” Bella wagged her tail.
A picture shared by Grupomar revealed a thin Shaddock smiling aboard the Maria Delia, a high blood pressure cuff around his arm. In another picture, he sat next to Bella, his hand on her side. The business said it had actually called authorities and the Australian Embassy so he might return home.
A tuna vessel from our fleet rescued an Australian castaway after 3 months on the high seas who was more than 1,200 miles from land. Thanks to the experience of the team assisted by Captain Oscar Meza Oregon, she received medical attention, pic.twitter.com/YYJr5XH22u
— Grupomar® (@Grupomar) July 18, 2023
Shaddock and Bella postured for pictures with their rescuers Tuesday, the team smiling as they held the dog. Bella was popular with team members, and Shaddock picked among them to adopt her on the condition that she would be well looked after, 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.”
