![]() They look like giant upturned bottlebrushes through the thin veil of rain. He scans the jungle outline of the island about 150 metres away, but can barely make out its scruffy palm trees poking out of the thick vegetation. The wind, although weakened, still swirls in gusts about the boat. It’s clogged with heavy bruise-like clouds. He takes a deep breath to suppress a brewing sense of panic and looks up to the sky. JM unfurls his six-foot frame and walks through the boat’s dining area, ducking out onto the Naga Laut’s lower deck. Tony and the two Marks sit around the end of the table, stirring coffee and pouring cereal into their bowls.Ĭonversation is subdued after the rough overnight crossing. Weyne and Craig, first-timers on a surf trip like this, are bent over the coffee machine trying to figure out how it works. JM pushes the surf magazine he’s been reading a few centimetres forward and quietly gets up from the galley table. He has to be sure.įrom where he’s sitting, he can see down the passage that leads into the ‘dungeon’, the gloomy porthole-less cabin beneath the prow of the boat that he’s sharing with his friend of forty-two years, Brett Archibald. It unfolds itself slowly, bringing a strange, spreading disquiet and the feeling of his insides being hollowed out. The thought doesn’t hit Jean-Marc with sledgehammer force. It is also the story of what it takes to defy extraordinary odds and the incredible power of the human spirit. Alone is the remarkable tale of his miraculous survival and rescue. Instead, Brett battled Portuguese man o' war and jellyfish, sharks, seagulls, and the stormy seas for more than 28 hours. According to the experts, he should have died within 10 to 14 hours. The rough weather meant that no planes or helicopters could assist in the search. At that point, a frantic search began for a single man somewhere in thousands of square miles of heaving waves. ![]() It would be eight hours before his friends realized he was missing. As Brett saw the lights of his boat disappearing into the darkness, it became clear that no one had seen him fall, and that no one would hear his shouts for help. When he came to, he found himself in the raging sea, 60 miles from shore. In the middle of a storm, ill with severe food poisoning, he blacked out. In April 2013, 50-year-old Brett Archibald was on board a surf-charter boat, making a night-time crossing of the remote Mentawai Strait off Sumatra, Indonesia. Alone: Lost Overboard in the Indian Ocean by Brett Archibald is an autobiographical narrative about surviving 28 hours in the sea alone (available November 7, 2017).
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