A sailor who fell aboard a supply vessel in the Pacific Ocean at 4 a.m. spent more than 14 hours clinging to an old fishing buoy before being rescued.
Alone in the middle of the ocean and without a life jacket, in the morning he chose to swim to a black spot on the horizon, a decision that would ultimately save his life.
Vidam Perevertilov, the onboard engineer of the Silver Supporter, was transferred to the deck for almost a full day after falling aboard on February 16, while his cargo ship was making a supply between the port of Tauranga de Nova Zealand, on the north island of the country and the isolated British territory of Pitcairn.
He later told his son that he had become dizzy after finishing a night shift in the engine room and had gone out on the deck to recover, before falling.
“He doesn’t remember falling overboard. Maybe he fainted, ”Perevetilov’s son Marat told Stuff of New Zealand.
Perevetilov remembers gaining consciousness when he saw his ship flee into the darkness. The crew did not realize that six hours were left.
The ship issued a distress call and French Navy planes joined the search from Polynesia, while the French meteorological service examined winds and currents to determine likely drift patterns.
The crew on board was able to determine that Perevertilov had been on board at four in the morning because he had filed a log report at the time. By the time it passed overboard, the Silver Supporter was about 400 nautical miles south of the southernmost southern islands of French Polynesia.
In the middle of the ocean, with his boat out of sight on the horizon, Perevertilov, 52, made a decision at dawn that would ultimately save his life.
He saw a black spot on the horizon and, not knowing what it was, swam towards it.
“His will to survive was strong, but he told me until the sun came out that he was struggling to stay afloat,” Marat told Stuff of Lithuania.
The point on the horizon turned out to be an abandoned fishing buoy. Perevertilov clung to it until he was found around six in the afternoon. His ship had a definite search pattern when a crew member heard a faint voice and a lookout saw a raised hand from the ocean.
Perevertilov was taken out of the water exhausted but unharmed.
Vidam Perevertilov fell ashore about 400 nautical miles south of the Austral Islands. He was rescued 14 hours later, clinging to an old fishing buoy.
British High Commissioner to New Zealand Laura Clarke, who also serves as governor of Pitcairn Island, told the New Zealand Herald that everyone was “hugely relieved” to learn of the rescue.
“We all feared the worst, given the large scale of the Pacific Ocean and its strong currents,” he said.
“So the fact that the Silver Supporter found him and survived is incredible: a survival story that even Captain Bligh … would have applauded.”
William Bligh was drifted by mutineers on his ship the Bounty 1789, and successfully sailed more than 6,000 km on an open launch on the island of Timor, then called the Dutch East Indies.
The mutineers would become the first inhabitants of Pitcairn Island and their descendants still live there. The remote volcanic island remains a British territory.
Perevetilov’s son, Marat, told Stuff that his father had left the fishing buoy at sea instead of taking it as a souvenir.
“It’s funny. He said he wanted to leave it there, so that someone else’s life could be saved.”