Timothy Shaddock, who was found by a Mexican tuna boat after drifting in the Pacific with his dog Bella for two months, survived on fishing and supplies.
The shipwrecked Australian, who spent two months adrift in the Pacific Ocean with his dog Bella, arrived in Mexico on Tuesday aboard the fishing boat that likely saved his life.
With a white beard collar, shaggy blond hair, blue eyes, sunken facial features, but smiling: Timothy Shaddock was located on board his catamaran by a Mexican tuna boat in the Pacific, Australian media said on Monday.
“I fished a lot. I had a lot of equipment with me and also a lot of provisions,” he described his weeks on the high seas.
“I’m grateful, I’m alive,” he added to the press waiting for him on the quay of the port of Manzanillo (West). “I want to see my friends and family,” he said, wearing a beret with the logo of the company that owns the Mexican fishing boat.
“Life is beautiful and we had a responsibility to save the life of a human being and the little dog that was accompanying him,” Antonio Suarez, president of the Grupomar company, said earlier.
Found over 1,200 miles offshore
“We have medical service on board our boats,” he added. “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 excursion at sea. The Australian castaway was more than “1,200 miles from land” when sighted by the tuna boat, the company said in a statement Monday.
Tim Shaddock and his dog Bella left the coastal city of La Paz, Mexico in April, planning to travel about 6,000km before dropping anchor in French Polynesia.
But the rough sea quickly damaged the boat and rendered the electronic equipment inoperable.