Surfer Survives 27 Hours At Sea After Falling Off Boat

Brett Archibald expected to spend his vacation surfing off the coast of Indonesia. Instead, the surfer spent 27 hours lost at sea without a life jacket.

According to the Daily Mail, Archibald, 50, was on a boat with about 10 other passengers in the Mentawai Strait. The boat ended up running into rough waters, and Archibald got sea sick over the side of the boat.

The 50-year-old surfer said that he passed out, and, when he woke up, he was in the water watching the boat fade in the distance. The other passengers didn’t realize that Archibald was missing until breakfast the following morning.

Colin Chu, who was on the boat that rescued Archibald, told the Canberra Times: ”He said he’d been seasick the night before and vomited so much he blacked out and fell overboard from his boat, the Nagalout. He said he woke up in the water and saw his boat sailing into the distance.”

The surfer spent 27 hours lost at sea battling waves, jellyfish stings, pecking seagulls, and curious fish until he was found. Archibald had drifted about 11 miles from where he had fallen off the boat by the time he was rescued.

A message on the “Searching For Brett Archibald” Facebook page, reads: “WE Found Him! We Found him! … and he’s Alive!! … A boat named the Baren Joey had picked up Brett Archibald out of the deep blue open expanse of Ocean when they spotted Brett holding onto a log and drifting slowly towards shore …”

Archibald was taken to a hospital Panang, West Sumatra to receive medical treatment but once he’s realized he plans on continuing his surfing trip. Archibald joked that he didn’t “fly all that way to tread water for 27 hours.”