Pair survive Indonesian boat sinking
A Kiwi couple have told of a desperate swim to safety and drinking urine to survive, after their tourist boat overturned while sailing between Indonesian islands.
Golden Bay couple Tony Lawton and Gaylene Wilkinson were among a group of foreign tourists who spent 10 hours clinging to the upturned small cruise boat.
The boat sank on Saturday evening on its way from Lombok to Komodo islands, carrying 20 foreign tourists, four Indonesian crewmen and an Indonesian guide. Last night, a Dutch man and Italian woman were still missing after 23 people have been rescued.
‘‘The 10 strongest swimmers decided to swim for the coast because we thought we’d survive it, and luckily we did, but it was very close,’’ Lawton said in a report screened on TV3.
Wilkinson said the swimmers drank their own urine to survive.
‘‘When we arrived on shore, we’d already been in the water for 18 hours and we just needed a drink, so you do what you do.’’
Conditions had been rough and dark leading up to the incident, Wilkinson said.
‘‘There was no chart, no navigation equipment, no GPS, no depth sounder, so we hit a reef,’’ she said.
An email yesterday morning brought the good news to Golden Bay that the pair had survived. ‘‘We are alive,’’ their email said. Golden Bay friend Pema Parigot said initial news reports had mentioned Wilkinson but not Lawton, so the email was a relief.
‘‘My heart had been in my throat, now I am celebrating,’’ she said.
The couple had been on a sixweek holiday including scuba diving and cycling.
‘‘They’ve definitely had their adventure,’’ she said.
It is understood they have cut short their holiday and plan to
from left Tony Lawton, Sharmilla Wilkinson and Gaylene Wilkinson relax at the beginning of the couple’s six week holiday, which was cut short one month in when the boat they were on sank on Saturday. return home.
Gaylene Wilkinson’s mother Ngaire Wilkinson said: ‘‘I’m just so thankful they’re alive.’’
She said her daughter had retired from teaching and needed a ‘‘good break’’. They were in Indonesia to do a diving course.
She said the pair were heading to Bali for a few days to rest before returning to New Zealand.
French survivor Bertrand Homassel told the Daily Mail that he and others swam for six hours to shore after the boat sank.
‘‘Everyone took the decision to swim to the closest island, 5 kilometres away, where there was an erupting volcano.’’
They arrived at the island Sangeang at sunset on Saturday.
Lawton told local media the cause of the accident was yet to be confirmed. ‘‘We think the boat hit a reef at 7pm on the day that we left Port Lombok,’’ he said.
According to media reports, Tajudin Sam, who ran the tour company operating the boat, said it probably encountered stormy weather.
Yesterday bad weather was hampering a search for the two tourists still missing, officials said.
Ten people were rescued on Sunday and 13 more early on Monday.
Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the national disaster management agency, said fishermen found the survivors floating with lifejackets.
He said the survivors were being treated at a clinic on West Nusa Tenggara island, which lies between Lombok and Komodo. The tourists rescued so far are from Britain, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and New Zealand.
Indonesia has a chequered maritime safety record among the thousands of ferries that crisscross the vast archipelago.
Two ships sank last month during the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holidays, killing 36 people.