The lone Australian Sailor who was rescued off the shore of Port Moresby on Wednesday is now well and recovering from his ordeal.
He is now being taken care of by the Royal Papua Yacht Club awaiting his yacht to be repaired.
Barry Blackwood is an ex-Australian Navy and a Vietnam War Veteran. He joined the Navy when he was 15 years old and went to Vietnam at 17. He is now 62 years old and lives on his boat, the Shivoo.
He went to Murray Island, an Island among the Torres Strait group of Islands, to visit a Pastor who is a friend of his.
While there, he decided to go out fishing when he was hit by the cyclone.
According to Blackwood he was right in the middle of the sea with no land in sight, no sail or engine. The current was carrying him closer to PNG
The search and rescue mission was coordinated by Canberra ICC Rescue team and the Royal Papua Yacht Club with the help of the National Fisheries Authority.
Blackwood was 40 nautical miles off the coast of Port Moresby when he was first located by an Australian Recue plane. He was able to communicate with the plane using a mirror.
After a while Allan Poulton and his crew on board the Sea Hawk arrived. They were at the Yacht Club when the alarm was raised and set off immediately.
James Black a paramedic on board than swarm over to check on Barry’s condition.
He said it was a tremendous effort by Allan, his crew and the National Fisheries Authority and it was one of the best compared to the ones he had seen in Australia.
He encouraged those travelling during the cyclone season to be prepared and equipped with all necessary survival gear, the most important being a workable epeb device to send out a distress signal when in trouble because that was how they were able to locate him.
He was released from hospital yesterday and decided to have a taste of PNG beer.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=q23yzMH5YmI%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26wmode%3Dopaque%26showinfo%3D0%26showsearch%3D0%26rel%3D0
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