‘DAD’S MY HERO!’
After surviving a shipwreck, Glenn towed his daughter Ruby to safety
“I was just so focused on trying to get us to safety… I had to keep Ruby alive,” says Glenn.
Snuggling in close, Ruby is making sure she gives her dad Glenn Anderson extra cuddles this Father’s Day. The 11-year-old reckons he is “her hero” after saving her life earlier this year.
Glenn and Ruby survived a terrifying ordeal in May when their yacht sank off the Western Australian coastline. “I don’t know what I would do without him,” says Ruby, emotional at the memory.
“I’m so grateful he is my dad, I love him so much.”
A TRIP TO REMEMBER
It was a voyage 41-year-old high school teacher Glenn and his daughter had been looking forward to. They were sailing his yacht and fulltime home, Impara II, from Busselton to Exmouth – a four-month journey. On May 26 they set sail with nine-monthold puppy Banjo and were later joined by fellow sailors Dane, Nerea and Jordan to help crew the vessel.
Together, the group enjoyed sailing alongside pods of dolphins and watching gorgeous sunsets each evening.
But on the fourth day, their idyllic holiday became a nightmare when the weather turned. An experienced sailor, Glenn decided to steer the ship into calmer waters, but soon found himself in dangerous swells.
“I saw a wave had broken about 100 metres out to sea and as I watched, it became apparent [the wave] was going to hit us, hard,” Glenn tells Woman’s Day.
“Turns out changing course was my biggest mistake.”
As the four-metre wave hit, Glenn and Ruby – who were in the cockpit of the yacht – plummeted into the churning ocean below.
“We were jerked sideways and then I was in the water,” recalls Glenn, who suffered a head wound after colliding with the mast. “When I popped up and Ruby was right next to me, I grabbed her tight.”
Later discovering his daughter had broken her leg in two places, they attempted to swim back towards the boat. But they could only watch in horror as a second wave battered the yacht – and it began to sink.
The crew, who had been resting below deck before the waves hit, scrambled to grab lifejackets and the EPIRB – the Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon, which is used to alert search and rescue services of their location – before plunging into the water.
“It was like a scene out of a movie... the mast disappeared in front of our eyes and then there was nothing,” says Glenn.
Ruby adds, “It didn’t feel real... it was really scary.”
Devastatingly, the family’s beloved pup Banjo was never found.
As the waves continued to crash they were separated from the crew and Glenn was unable to swim back to them due to the strong current.
‘Knowing that Ruby was going to be OK was the ultimate relief’
“I was wasting a lot of energy trying to keep up with them,” says Glenn, who made the gut-wrenching decision to find an alternate route to shore, which was kilometres away.
“I was torn between protecting them and protecting Ruby.
“I thought, ‘I can’t do it all... they have lifejackets and they have the beacon, they’ll be fine.’”
For seven kilometres, Glenn towed Ruby, who was showing signs of hyperthermia, towards land, desperately trying to keep her head above the rough swell.
With her father’s encouraging voice urging her on, Ruby fought through the
exhaustion and pain. “Dad made sure I was staying awake and never let go of me,” recalls Ruby. “He was reassuring me that we were going to make it.”
Adds Glenn, “I knew we had to keep going. I just wanted to keep my daughter alive.”
Meanwhile, the crew – who had been able to set off the emergency beacon
– were found by Jurien Bay Volunteer Marine Rescue team just before 2pm.
EMOTIONAL RESCUE
But it was another two hours in the relentless swell before Glenn and Ruby were found just 200 metres from shore after beachgoers called in their location to emergency services.
Rushed to the marina where paramedics were waiting, Glenn was overwhelmed with emotion knowing they were finally safe after their four-hour ordeal.
“Knowing that Ruby was going to be OK was the ultimate relief,” recalls Glenn, his voice thick with emotion.
“She was severely hypothermic to the point the paramedic said he couldn’t get a temperature reading from her finger because there was no circulation at all. “She was unbelievably brave.” Airlifted to the Perth Children’s Hospital, Ruby underwent surgery on her leg before returning home three days later.
Now fully recovered, incredibly Ruby and Glenn haven’t let their ordeal deter them from planning their next trip.
“I know that sailing isn’t always the way it was that day,” says Ruby, who is excited that Glenn has already bought a new boat.
“It was just another adventure.”
And while Glenn is flattered to be his daughter’s superhero, to him the real heroes are the strangers who came to their rescue.
“I couldn’t be more grateful to the volunteers, paramedics, fishermen and tourism operators who came to look for us... they’re heroes to me.”