Desperate swim for shore
A Mackay fisherman whose boat sank 18km from shore at dusk has recalled the desperate decision to swim amid fears they wouldn’t be rescued.
Ryan Taylor, 33, and brothers Sean and Mitch Cook had spent Friday, March 25, 2022 fishing near an island off Mackay’s coast and were returning with a hefty haul in the Esky when their boat experienced “fuel drama”.
Ryan, who had only bought the 16-foot centre console boat three months prior, and was on his third trip out to sea on it, said they stopped about 5pm to fix the line. But a rogue wave in choppy seas as the trio was about to head off again became their great undoing, sinking the vessel and leaving the mates with no option but to make a desperate swim to shore.
“We were out fishing, had been out all day, and everything was as per normal and then sort of come unstuck,” Ryan said.
“As we went to take off (after fixing the fuel issue, a wave came over the back end of the boat. “That was it. It was finished.”
The boat was hit by another couple of waves and began taking on water quickly, partially sinking with only an air pocket holding it above sea level.
Ryan had to dive into the partially sunk boat to get the EPIRB and activate it. They waited.
With no way of knowing if the distress beacon had registered, Ryan and the Cook brothers grabbed what they could to stay afloat, including the Esky filled with fish.
Eventually, the Esky was let go and they strung together two jerry cans and a dive float, and held on. Then waited.
As the sun continued dipping, the trio made the call to start swimming to shore towards the Seabreeze Tavern lights beyond the Mackay Harbour.
“We had hopes and dreams, we didn’t want to sit out there all night,” Ryan said.
“Once we activated the EPIRB we sat there for about half an hour.”
With a continuous check on any boats coming from the harbour, Ryan said their initial hope of a rescue faded when no vessel headed their way.
“We saw the EPIRB was on but we could see the harbour and no-one was coming,” he said.
“I said, it’s not an EPIRB, it’s a no-PIRB.”
They made a desperate decision - start swimming to shore.
“We made the decision to leave the boat because once the tide turned, we would be carried out to sea,” he said.
“It probably wasn’t the brightest idea at the time.”
The trio started swimming, making it about a kilometre with the EPIRB tracking their effort.
Ryan said his rescuers told him they were zigzagging and would have made landfall by the morning. The thought of sharks as dusk set in was never far from their minds.
“Don’t kick anything,” was a recurring thought as they clung on.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority alerted RACQ CQ Rescue which deployed a crew to rescue the fishermen.
The rescue service tracked the men through the EPIRB, and lowered down crew fitting each of the men with a vest before winching them into the chopper.
All three returned to the Mackay Airport base, uninjured but exhausted.
Mr Taylor said he was grateful to the crew.
“You read about it, watch YouTube and videos, but it’s one of those things you think will never happen to you,” he said. “I honestly worshipped those guys yesterday.
“A big thanks and muchly appreciated to the VMR and RACQ CQ Rescue - it would have been a long night without them.”