A man has miraculously survived 20 hours at sea in the Torres Strait, in what Australian police have called a Christmas miracle.
The 31-year-old was found clinging to a remnant of debris from his dinghy after it capsized when a mammoth wave hit between Getullia Island and Sue Island in the Torres Strait.
Queensland police senior sergeant Anthony Moynihan told ABC news that the man was not carrying safety equipment when he set off on his journey alone and so it was astonishing he survived.
He said: “It’s incredible. It’s one in a million. To be floating in that water and knowing the creatures that are in there and to still be there some 20 hours later – he’s an extremely lucky fella.”
He said the man is in excellent spirits and not suffering from any serious conditions, despite having no safety equipment on board at all, no emergency beacons and no flares.
Mr Moynihan continued: “He’s extremely lucky. That’s the big message that we’d like to get across, if you are going out this Christmas, enjoy yourselves but just make sure you get enough safety equipment.”
The man set out alone from Moa Island at about 9:30 am on Tuesday and was heading for Warraber Islet, which is a journey of about 37 miles.
He failed to reach Warraber which is when his family sounded the alarm over his whereabouts.
The search team had to call off their operation that night due to wet weather, leaving the bloke stranded for even longer.
They said: "We weren't able to use any helicopter assets last night because of the poor weather or any other assets like the volunteer marine rescue because of the poor conditions."
Eventually, an overturned dinghy was found at about 10:30 am the next day, with the man eventually spotted a further seven nautical miles away floating on a piece of wood.
He was then winched to safety by the helicopter.
Mr Moynihan urged people to tell friends and family when they are heading out on trips and to make sure you inform them of what timeframes you're going to be there so people can raise alarms if you don't arrive.
In July, a holidaymaker miraculously survived 18 hours adrift at sea by clinging to a small ball lost by boys on a beach an amazing 80 miles away.
The 30-year-old tourist named Ivan was swept out to sea by powerful currents off the coast of Kassandra in Greece.
Amazingly the ball had been lost 10 days earlier by brothers Tryphon, 11, and six-year-old Thanos.
