An Australian yachtsman who lost a treasured boat at sea has described his rescue off a remote Indonesian tropical island as a “sweet and sour experience”.
Cairns man Shaun Sims and his French crew member, Lovise, ran into trouble last week while sailing off the coast of the province of West Kalimantan. Mr Sims has been a recreational yachtsman for 35 years and was on a mission to sail his boat, Australis II, from Borneo to Australia.
The duo was sailing through the Java Sea when the boat developed a tear in its sail.
“Not a problem. You're constantly stitching and sewing little tears and bits and pieces on sails,” said Mr Sims. “So we looked for a small island that we could shelter on for a day [to] put a patch on it and sew it. And the island that came up for us was Penebangan.
Mr Sims was sailing closer to the island when the boat's rudder locked up in some fishing nets and would not budge. As the pair tried to save the boat, she made a “horrible, sickening” sound over submerged rocks and started being washed to shore.
Continue reading about the shipwreck and how help came by clicking here.
