‘I just kept staying alive’
24-hour ordeal after falling overboard without life jacket
Oh, the relief. Oh, just, yeah, I thought ‘well, it’s over’. Will Fransen
Aman who fell off his boat and survived 24 hours floating alone in the ocean before using his watch to signal to rescuers says he “wasn’t meant to go yet”.
Cambridge man Will Fransen, 61, said he tried and failed multiple times to catch the attention of passing boats after he fell overboard, and was “pessimistic” from the start at his chances of survival.
Fransen had set off on a solo fishing trip on January 2 aboard his 40-foot boat, with plans to return the following day.
He had hooked and tagged a marlin and was about to release it back into the ocean when everything went horribly wrong.
Fransen cannot recall if he had lifted the rail on his boat or if it had come out on his own, but with the movement of the ocean and the fish, he lost his balance and fell out of the open safety rail.
“The next thing I was in the water with the boat idling.”
He tried to swim back to the boat but within a few strokes realised it was moving away from him too quickly.
“I grabbed the line with the marlin attached and started pulling the line out. I tried pulling my way towards the boat only to have the line slip out of my hand, which is pretty gutting, because next thing my boat’s idling over the horizon and I’m treading water.”
He was about 30 nautical miles or 55km off the North Island, and would end up drifting a long distance to Mayor Island in the Bay of Plenty.
Fransen had managed to keep a hold of his hat in the fall, and tried to wave it and yell at passing boats, with no success.
He was not wearing a life jacket, but had on a harness that had some level of buoyancy to it.
He then tried to swim towards the nearby Alderman Islands, but soon realised the current was taking him in the opposite direction.
“I gave up and just treaded water and watched the beautiful sunset overhead.”
At some point in the ordeal, Fransen saw a fin appear in the water nearby and spotted a shark.
“Fortunately it decided it wasn’t interested. It would have been a good couple of metres so it could have easily dealt to me.”
The shark stayed in Fransen’s mind for some time, and every time he touched a bit of seaweed he was startled.
As the night wore on he reflected on family, friends and life, and regularly hoisted his harness into the air to drain water from it, hoping it would be buoyant enough to keep him afloat after his death.
He wanted it to be easy to find his body so his children would be able to cash in his life insurance policy, he said.
“I would have given any money for a life jacket. I thought I was safe in the boat because the rails were up.”
Fransen treaded water through the night, not sleeping, drifting miles down the coast until he ended up close to Mayor Island/tuhua.
The weather conditions in the morning were rougher than the previous day, and he knew there were unlikely to be many boats out.
Fransen fought to keep his head above water as waves crashed over him. He ended up ingesting seawater, and was shivering in the cooler temperatures.
“When I went in the water I knew the chances of somebody even knowing I was in the water were pretty slim. I was pretty pessimistic from the outset,” he said. “I just kept staying alive.”
He eventually saw another boat and thought he would try to use his watch to catch the sun’s reflection and shine it at the boat.
“As I was trying to get my arm up I would just go underwater. So that boat duly motored away. Then something changed. The wind stopped, the sea got a bit calmer.”
Fransen had been hallucinating throughout the day, often seeing boats where there were none. “I imagined plenty of them.” But then he saw three young men game fishing nearby, and this time someone saw the light he was reflecting off his watch.
“Oh, the relief. Oh, just, yeah, I thought ‘well, it’s over’.
“I wasn’t meant to go yet. “James, who was driving . . . in his words, he said ‘I saw this waving arm and thought, well, there’s not supposed to be any waving arms out here.”’
James Mcdonnell, Max White and Tyler Taffs motored over to Fransen and pulled him from the water, wrapping him in everything they could find to bring his temperature up. Fransen sculled warm bottles of water and cranberry juice.
“They immediately headed for home at high speed.”
Fransen’s face was burnt from the sun’s reflection off the water, and his legs, arms and joints were sore from treading water, but he was able to walk to the waiting ambulance when they arrived at Whangamata¯.
He said he had Mcdonald’s and a Heineken as soon as he got out of hospital.
Fransen is still hopeful he can get his boat back, as it idles out to the Pacific. He has two planes looking for the boat, including one he chartered himself.
He wanted to thank everyone who helped him, including the emergency responders.
Max White, the skipper of the boat that came to Fransen’s rescue, said he and his friends were out near Mayor Island for a day of game fishing.
“One of my mates saw a glimmer of what ended up being his watch.”
The group headed over to investigate and as they got closer, White told his friends he thought it was “a human” floating in the water.
“It’s not something you expect to see 10 miles off the back of Mayor Island.
He said it was “a bit silly” but the first thing he asked Fransen was whether he was alright.
“I guess in those circumstances you’re probably not alright.”
He recalled Fransen’s first words to him as being something along the lines of “glad to see you”.
“He was super cold, severely dehydrated.”
As Fransen started sharing his story, the group were surprised to hear he had been in the water “since yesterday” and had drifted a long way from the Alderman Islands.
“He was able to recall his story. It was a bit eye-opening for us.”
White said after a day’s fishing “you always expect to come home expecting to talk about the fish that you saw and the fish that you caught”.
To be able to go home and tell his family he had helped rescue a man from the water was a whole new situation.
Hearing yesterday that Fransen was doing well was heartening for White.
“He recalled I guess his night in terms of being circled by a shark for a while there.
“He had been awake for nearly two days, I guess you don’t want to be sleeping if you’re trying to keep yourself afloat.”
The incident had been a good reminder about water safety.
White said people should make sure to tell others where they were going and when to expect them back, and should make sure they had the necessary gear and it was accessible to them.
“Freak accidents do happen.” White was thankful his friends had seen the reflection from Fransen’s watch and decided to investigate.
They had all thought about the “what ifs”, but were glad they had gone to check.
“We were just the right boat at the right time.”