Photo: New Caledonia’s Marine Rescue Coordination Centre
An Australian man was rescued in the middle of the Pacific Ocean after his hand-made rowboat capsized. Tom Robinson was attempting to become the youngest person to row across the entire Pacific Ocean when he ran into bad weather on Thursday (October 5) night.
Robinson told the New Zealand Herald that a massive wave caught him off-guard and flipped over his boat.
"I was just sitting there inside the boat contemplating dinner, and a millisecond later, it was upside down," he said.
Robinson managed to climb on top of his boat and activated his distress beacon.
The distress call was received by the New Caledonia's Marine Rescue Coordination Center, but they were unable to communicate with him. They reached out to the Pacific Explorer, a nearby cruise ship in the middle of a nine-day round-trip voyage from New Zealand, and asked for assistance.
The Pacific Explorer was able to locate Robinson, who was still sitting on top of his overturned rowboat.
"I had a line around my waist tied onto the boat that really helped me because waves were constantly breaking over the boat. I was holding on for dear life," Robinson said.
The crew of the cruise ship pulled Robinson aboard and treated him for sunburn and dehydration.
"Tom's a really lucky man," Peter Little, senior vice president of P&O Cruises Australia, told Fox News. "These were very challenging conditions. We appreciate our guests' understanding that this was a life-or-death matter."