Earlier this year we were introduced to a man. His name is Brett Archibald. He was a guest at our children's school, and shared his amazing experience with all of us, and it was frankly shocking, scary, amazing, inspiring and worth sharing.
If you haven't heard about his story, I hope this blows you away as much as it did for me.
Brett started with his story as to how he got into the situation, which was going on a small surfing trip with some guys he knew...friends.
He wasn't a great surfer, but he considered himself a strong swimmer that had decent knowledge and experience in the ocean.
At 50 years of age Brett, on a surf trip to Indonesia, he had bad blend of sea sickness and food poisoning. He wasn't the only one, and with vomit and 'green' friends all over the inside of the boat as it pushed towards the coastline.
It was because of these circumstances that he needed to get outside for fresh air. Standing on the deck of the ship, dehydrated, nauseous, out of energy and throwing up the last thing he remembered is protecting his head from the hard rain, holding the rail and throwing up.....he lost consciousness and woke up under the water!
As he pushed upward and surfaced, he saw the little boat pulling away.....realized his predicament, screamed for help and watched the boat continue into the distance. It wouldn't be the last time he felt complete despair.
He had a wife of 10 years, a 9 year old daughter and a 6 year old son....they would save his life, a few times along with other creatures.
Where Brett fell into the water-middle of nowhere
Already weak, already sick....there was not much chance of lasting long in these waters, especially during a storm of this nature.
It was 2am, and he realized that those on board would probably only realize he wasn't there when they landed at port....in his mind he though 7am....it was 10am when they realized he wasn't there.
Determined to stay alive, he started swimming and began survival mode, concentrating on getting through the storm.
At one point the rain was so hard on his head he thought it was hailing on him....he was already starting to cramp badly, that was before the night was even over.
Brett was asleep at one stage, and was awoken by a massive knock on the head. As he lifted his head, he was hit again in the face by another seagull. They were fighting over him...he was food...they wanted his eyeballs and were willing to fight for it.
He fought them off, and had a strange thought....let me catch one...I could eat them!! He actually thought of biting its head off and eating it feathers and all.
It was just one of a few strange psychological experiences he had.
At one stage he saw a boat(canoe) with 2 people in it and tried to get into the boat....it was only after trying to get into the boat that he realized it was his mind playing hallucinating.
Another time he saw an old ship with a rope ladder and people on board shouting to him that he can make it. Another hallucination.
Shark
At one stage, around 15 hours in, he encountered a shark. It actually bumped into him and when he saw it he thought that his is a great way to go, lifted his head to expose his neck, and invited the shark to do its work. He dove under the water to look at it in the eyes in fact.
Then he recognized the shark, and as a surfer knew this was not a dangerous animal, and it was bumping him to size up if this was indeed a meal or not.
The next thought shows how his mind was starting to deteriorate. He decided to catch onto the shark, and it would drag him bag to shore.
The shark swam away, and in actual fact Brett was seriously heartbroken as another viable (in his mind) option of rescue disappeared.
He often said his mind was starting with craziness.
Jellyfish
As night fell, he felt a shock on his arm and found he was surrounded by beautiful phosphorescent jellyfish everywhere..."it was beautiful" he said.
Again, he was happy to accept his fate, and imagined himself being stung and falling to the bottom of the ocean.
He was indeed stung...many times in fact, but he drifted through the jellyfish screaming and fighting and got through to the other side.
Again, he had to refocus, and swim on.
In fact he actually encountered a real boat...not too far from him. His throat was already so raw that not much more that squeaks could come form his throat.
He took a deep breath and swam for the boat. When about 200m from the boat....it sailed away.
Brett decided at this point to end his suffering and kill himself.
Brett went under the water and forced himself to suck in as much sea water as he possible could....he was drowning himself. While doing this his wife came to him and told him to not give up, but to fight on: “Swim, you bugger, swim! You’re not leaving me here with two young children.”
He listened and shot to the surface....vomiting all the sea water out of his lungs.
he screamed at God, spoke to him and vented. Interestingly enough, he never lost faith in him however. In actual fact, he felt peace when approaching Him and faced his probable death better.
Attack of the mini fish
Brett says the worst part, and most painful part was that after so many hours of swimming, his legs became raw at the back of his shorts.
There were these little fish that would eat his flesh. No matter how he screamed, hit the water, thrashed about, these fish remained, and continued to eat at his legs. These are his words "But the worst was these tiny little silver fish that nibbled my skin. The backs of my legs were raw from kicking against my trouser shorts and the fish got to the raw flesh and started eating. I couldn’t get them away no matter how I kicked and screamed and how I splashed the water. It was the most horrendous thing I’ve ever felt in my life. Ever!"
I cant imagine what being eaten alive slowly must feel like emotionally....never mind the physical part of it.
His hands no longer had blood in them at rescue
Rescue
A few parts of his rescue stick out to me. That the captain that went out to search for him did so after all others had decided that Brett was gone. That he also followed his gut as he went out to see...not following the suggested patterns and places.
When the captain changed the direction of the boat he basically almost ran right into Brett...and they still could not see his head in the water....
When Brett tried to swim for the boat, he was in actual fact just floundering in the water, even though he felt like a dolphin speeding along....as he approached the boat, all his strength left him and he sank into the water...almost drowning with the boat right there!
Due to him taking in so much salt water in the suicide attempt, if he had taken water, for which he was desperate for, he would have drowned or had passed away due to complications with that....there happened to be a medical person on the boat that stopped them doing exactly that. This saved his life.
The moment of rescue
There were many other experiences he had while on the ocean alone for such an extended period of time 28 HOURS!!!! but I suggest getting his book on the ordeal so you can read them all for yourself.
It is truly fascinating.
Lessons he shared
Professor Tim Noakes interviewed and tested him after the ordeal and told Brett some interesting facts about his ordeal.
When someone is in these extreme circumstances, often times exhaustion is a killer. People give up and allow themselves to die. The brain and body can handle a lot more than we realize, but we allow it to give up in situations like these. You can see how a few times he did just that.
He often wondered how every time he turned to God to question WHY!!!??? he was going through these things, something would hurt him....a shark would attack....he would get stung by jellyfish...fish would eat at him....a boat would materialize and disappear. All of these things made it seem like he was being punished, taunted.
He would scream at God, as mentioned before and ask why.
In fact Prof Noakes said that each of these events kept him alive. He should never have survived his ordeal, but the birds attacking, the other events each gave him a shot of adrenaline, got him kick started so to say, and allowed him to push through an other few hours of the ordeal.
How similar is that to our lives? How many times do we ask for help, and it seems like live just hits us with another tough time!! We ask why!?!?!? We shout...we plead....we pray...we give up.
When in fact He is there through those ordeals, using each one to shape us, boost us, even help us survive.
Brett never lost his faith. In fact he talks about how it changed his life from a corporate success, to a faith promoting, uplifting speaker and personality that enjoys his life with his family and friends.
He sees himself as a tool now, and he inspired many worldwide by his uplifting talks and experiences.
I would suggest to anyone to take a look at the book. Read it...experience the nightmare with him.
May you all be blessed with answers and help in your lives, and have the courage to accept how that help comes, even if by pain or difficulty.
Cheers
J
[Image and info credit www.dailymail.co.uk, bbc.com, goodreads.com, pinterest]