Sailor Tim Shaddock, Lost At Sea With His Dog For Nearly Three Months, Rescued In Mexico

An Australian man was found floating in the middle of the ocean last week – authorities now say that he had been lost at sea for nearly three months.

Tim Shaddock, 51, and his dog, Bella, set out to sail to French Polynesia from Mexico in April. A heavy storm and rough seas, however, damaged their boat and left them with no electricity, leaving the pair to fend for themselves in the vast Pacific Ocean.

Shaddock and Bella survived the long weeks by eating raw fish and drinking rainwater.

Although the storm caused Shaddock’s vessel to lose electricity, he told Australia’s 9News that he was still able to keep in touch with his family, doing a “check in with [his] sister every sunset and sunrise” as he was hoping to return to land.

“I’ve been in good communication with the family through all this and while I was out there,” Shaddock said after explaining that he had been using a Garmin inReach while lost at sea.

Last week, a helicopter noticed Shaddock and his catamaran 1,200 miles from land, which he told reporters at a news conference in Manzanillo, Mexico, was the first vehicle he had seen for months. Shortly after, a Mexican tuna boat named Maria Delia approached a gaunt and disheveled Shaddock and brought him and Bella onboard.

In the video of his rescue, a rescuer asks him what his name is.

“I’m Tim Shaddock, I’m from Australia,” he replies, looking very much like Tom Hanks’ character in Cast Away, Chuck Noland.

“I have been through a very difficult ordeal at sea,” Shaddock said in another video. “I’m just needing rest and good food, because I have been alone at sea a long time. Otherwise, I’m in very good health.”

Aside from malnutrition, Shaddock is reportedly “stable” and has “all completely normal vital signs.”

“To the captain and this shipping company that saved my life, I mean, what do you say? I’m just so grateful,” Shaddock said. “I’m alive and I didn’t really think I’d make it.”

While Shaddock prepared for his voyage back home this week, he gave his loyal companion a new home with one of the crew members of the Maria Delia.

“Bella seemed to have found me in the middle of Mexico, she’s Mexican, she is the spirit of the middle of the country and she wouldn’t let me go,” Shaddock said. “I tried to find a home for her maybe three times and she just kept following me out into the water. She’s a beautiful animal and I’m just grateful she’s alive.”