by Mat Churchill


Three local men are lucky to be alive after a fishing trip went badly wrong in relatively calm conditions on Saturday.

See the Newsport video interview of the 3 rescued men here:

The fishermen, who did not want to be named, were near Wentworth Reef approximately five kilometres from shore when an innocuous turn shifted the weight distribution in the boat causing it to flip.

Within a short space of time the vessel filled with water and sunk, leaving the three to cling to an upturned bucket for floatation.

"She went straight down pretty much," said one of the men involved.

After waiting half an hour in the hope of attracting the attention of a passing boat, and one of the fishermen seeing a tiger shark lurking beneath the trio, an agonising decision was made for a member of the group to swim for the coastline which was just in view on the horizon.

After around five hours of ocean swimming he made it to the safety of Four Mile Beach before raising the alarm.

"I wasn't thinking a hell of a lot, just keep swimming," he said.

A privately owned helicopter was used to search for the fishermen who remained at sea, and after spotting the two friends some six hours after their ordeal began they were rescued by a fishing vessel.