A naked Australian rower was saved from the Pacific Ocean after clinging to his capsized boat for 14 hours. Tom Robinson, 24, was rescued by a cruise ship on Friday morning after sending out a distress signal shortly before 9 p.m. local time, Thursday, according to the New Zealand Herald.
Robinson told the outlet that the hatch to the cabin on his boat was open when a “rogue wave came out of nowhere and turned the boat upside down.”
“Instantly I had to swim out from the flooded cabin and climb on top of the hull,” he told the publication. “I didn’t have any clothes on when the wave hit the boat — I usually row naked because it stops chafing,” Robinson, who is from Brisbane, continued. “So I was sitting in the cabin with no clothes on and then all of a sudden I’m upside down.”
“It was really cold and I tied myself on to the boat — and that really helped me because waves were breaking over the boat constantly and I was just sort of holding on for dear life,” he added to the New Zealand Herald.
According to U.K. newspaper The Times, a French Navy aircraft located the 24-foot rowing boat late on Thursday. P&O’s Pacific Explorer, which had 2,000 passengers on board on a round-trip to Auckland, then made a 124-mile detour to rescue Robinson.
After being reached by the cruise ship, Robinson had to climb naked up a rope ladder hanging from the boat’s side, per The Times.
“I’d like to say thank you to all the staff onboard P&O Cruises for just being really helpful and really kind,” Robinson added to the Herald in a video recorded by passenger Rod Pascoe.
“I feel really bad that I had to interrupt a cruise, I really do,” he continued. “And it is a real shame that my life was in danger and I had to put other people’s lives out of their way to come and save me. I’m not proud of that at all and I’d rather it not be like that.”
According to the publication, the cruise missed two ports of calls due to the rescue mission.
Robinson — who was suffering from sunburn and dehydration when he was rescued, per The Times — shared that he was “surprisingly calm and collected” during the ordeal.
“I had the utmost faith that help would arrive. You can’t let any doubts creep in because then that becomes a really bad headspace to be in,” he told the Herald, adding, “This morning, after first light, I saw the cruise ship approaching and I knew I was saved.”
According to The Times, Robinson was on the final leg of a 15-month voyage across the Pacific when his boat capsized near Vanuatu, a South Pacific Ocean nation made up of roughly 80 islands. His voyage began in Peru in early July 2022.
On Monday, Robinson returned to Brisbane, Australia for the first time in 18 months and was reunited with his parents at the airport, as reported by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
His mum told the outlet she was “very pleased to have him home.”
“Thursday night was a very stressful night for us, but when we got the phone call on Friday morning … and we heard his voice, and he was safe, well we were just so elated,” she said.
As for what’s next, Robinson told the Herald that he hopes to write a book about his experience, adding that he might “one day” try to finish the last leg of his voyage, which has been his dream since he was 14.