A Royal Australian Navy ship is bound for the Coral Sea after a Lithuanian man attempting to row across the Pacific Ocean from San Diego to Brisbane got into trouble.
Aurimas Mockus activated his emergency beacon on Friday night about 740km east of Mackay, Queensland, and 90km west of Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
He is travelling solo on the rowing boat from the Californian city to Brisbane and was battling winds up to 100km/h and heavy seas up to seven metres on Sunday, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) said. Mockus departed the US in mid-October 2024.
On Sunday afternoon, an Amsa spokesperson said the agency had communicated with Mockus through an interpreter via its Challenger rescue plane. Mockus reported he had no major injuries.
The Cairns-based Challenger jet didn’t spot his vessel on Saturday but managed to make contact with Mockus then. He said he was tired.
Another aircraft was sent from Royal Australian Air Force Base Edinburgh near Adelaide.
HMAS Choules, a 16,000-tonne navy landing ship, was en route from Brisbane to the Coral Sea to assist. Amsa said the ship was expected to reach Mockus by Monday morning.
Images taken by an RAAF aircraft showed the tiny vessel rolling on massive waves in the Coral Sea.
On Thursday, Mockus said that rowing was “out of the question – I need to survive”.
By that evening, he told his team that he was in “God’s hands” and that the coming days were “crucial”.
“Last night was utterly sleepless, but with immense effort I successfully navigated around the Chesterfield Islands’ reefs. From here on it’s in God’s hands. The most important thing is to endure the next few days – they will be crucial,” he said.
“Right now, I’m being carried at a very high speed, but not yet in the direction I need. I’m drifting a bit too far west – toward the approaching typhoon [cyclone].
“I hope the north wind will allow me to escape the typhoon (pushing me downward) as the drift is already massive – I don’t need to row. There are 500 nautical miles left if I manage to row directly toward Brisbane. But that’s hard to say because the typhoon is waiting ahead.
“There’s no sun out in the ocean, so I must conserve my battery power as much as possible – I’ve already reached a critical limit. I’ve shut down everything I can, leaving only the ability to communicate with my shore team. I just spoke with them, and they had nothing reassuring to say – I must endure this wind.”
Mockus’s team had not provided a further update by Sunday afternoon.
Amsa said on Sunday afternoon that weather conditions had eased slightly, “however, the area is still within the influence of Tropical Cyclone Alfred with winds up to 100km/h and 5-7 metre seas”.
The cyclone was about 500km east of Rockhampton on Sunday.
The category two cyclone was forecast to move south, roughly parallel to the coastline, before weakening slightly and moving to the south-east on Monday.
It was then expected to slow and turn west from Tuesday, travelling back towards the southern Queensland coast.
The Bureau of Meteorology said strong to gale-force winds could impact K’gari – also known as Fraser Island – on Sunday.
If Mockus makes it to Queensland, he would be the first person to row across the Pacific on this particular route, he has said. If he reached Australia in less than 22 days from Sunday he would set a new Guinness record.
A small group of people have crossed the Pacific single-handed, including the Britons Peter Bird in 1983 and John Beeden in 2015, and the Australian Michelle Lee in 2023.
Also in 2023, 24-year-old Tom Robinson attempted the feat but was rescued by a cruise ship after his boat capsized. In 2020, the Paralympic rowing star Angela Madsen died while attempting a solo journey from California to Hawaii.
