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Endurance In Extremity (Tales Of Stubborn Survival Or Persistence)

He resisted the temptation to eat the dog.

An Australian sailor who survived two months in the Pacific Ocean by eating raw fish and drinking rainwater is "stable and very well", a doctor says.

Sydney resident Tim Shaddock, 51, and his dog Bella left Mexico for French Polynesia in April, but their boat was damaged by a storm several weeks later. They were rescued by a trawler this week after a helicopter spotted them.

The doctor aboard the tuna trawler told Australia's 9News that the man had "normal vital signs".

Mr Shaddock embarked on his more than 6,000km-long (3,728-mile) voyage from Mexico's city of La Paz - but soon became stranded after his vessel's electronics were cut off by bad weather.

It left the sailor and his dog drifting in the vast and hostile North Pacific ocean.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-66216191
 
Spudrick68 said:
Sod the man how is the dog?
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The dog is fine but sadly…

Sailor forced to abandon dog that ‘saved him’ while stranded at sea for months​

He’s moving back to Australia &

His decision has likely also been somewhat forced upon him due to the complex, strict and costly nature of the process required to bring pets into Australia.

Dogs must be vaccinated, microchipped and undergo a quarantine period before they are fully allowed into the country from ‘approved nations’.

Unfortunately, Mexico is not on the list of approved countries for pet importation in Australia, which makes it even more difficult to bring Bella with him.

After they were brought to safety, Tim described Bella, who was an instant hit with the boat crew, as ‘amazing’ and said: ‘She’s a lot braver than I am, that’s for sure.’

When asked how Bella was, he replied: ‘That dog is something else. She’s a beautiful animal. I’m just grateful she’s alive.’

Ocean survival expert Professor Mike Tipton also said having his companion at his side ‘may well have made the difference’ between life and death.

He has chosen Genaro Rosales, one of the crew members on board the tuna trawler Marie Delia that came to his aid to adopt Bella on the condition that he would take good care of her.
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ramonmercado said:
Vid at link.

Colombia plane crash: New video shows lost children found in Amazon​

Newly released video shows the first moments four missing children were found alive after surviving a plane crash. They had spent weeks fending for themselves in the Amazon jungle in Colombia. Rescuers can be seen tending to the children in the footage, with one man cradling a child in his arms.

Two pilots and the children's mother and were killed when their light aircraft crashed on 1 May. The siblings, aged 13, nine, five, and one, weren't found until 9 June - where they were rescued and airlifted out of the jungle. They were then moved to a military hospital in Colombia's capital, Bogota.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-latin-america-65889091
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An interesting development,

BOGOTÁ (AP) — The father of two of the four Indigenous children who survived a plane crash that killed their mother and two other adults, then survived 40 days on their own in the Amazon jungle was arrested Friday, Colombian authorities said.

The Colombian Prosecutor’s Office confirmed in a message to Associated Press journalists that officials arrested Manuel Ranoque, who is the father of the 1- and 4-year-old boys in the crash and the stepfather of the two girls, ages 9 and 13.

The statement gave no details on the reason, but media reports said the case involved allegations of abuse.

Astrid Eliana Cáceres, director of the Colombian Institute for Family Welfare, said the state agency had been working with the authorities.

“We learned of the capture of the father of two Mucutuy minor children and we believe that the prosecutor’s office has operated within the full framework of the law,” she said.

Ranoque has been embroiled in a fight for custody of the children with their maternal grandparents. Their mother died four days after the crash, according to the oldest child, Lesly.

The four siblings have remained in the custody of Colombia’s child protection agency since leaving the hospital after recovering from malnutrition and other ailments.

Their maternal grandfather, Narciso Mucutuy, has accused Ranoque of beating their mother, Magdalena Mucutuy.

https://apnews.com/article/colombia...her-arrested-824ab62688bd2e8610e27eb3463823b7
 
he's lucky he didn't end up as dumpling for the bears.

A lost hiker was saved in an Alaskan national park this week thanks to the vigilant viewers who were watching a bear cam livestream.

Talking to the camera on Dumpling Mountain, the hiker appeared to say "lost" and "help me". Park rangers at Katmai National Park were alerted to the stranded hiker and were able to rescue him. The park is one of the most remote in the US, accessible only by plane or boat.

Around 15:15 local time (00:15 BST) bear enthusiasts were tuned into the Dumpling Mountain live cam on Explore.org - a live nature camera network and documentary channel - when one viewer commented online: "There is someone distressed on the camera."

The bear cam does not play audio, but viewers wrote that the hiker appeared to be asking for help, saying they could read his lips.

Explore.org also told the BBC the hiker "gave a thumbs down signal".

Rangers rescue the hiker
IMAGE SOURCE, EXPLORE.ORG Image caption, Rangers rescue the hiker from Dumpling Mountain

There is no cell service on Dumpling Mountain - or anywhere else in the remote park. Viewers got in touch with Explore.org staff, who were able to reach the National Park Service.

A moderator on the web cam page told the vigilant camera watchers: "Thanks viewers for letting us know. Explore is aware and able to get in touch with Katmai. They are also reviewing the footage."

The company said "staff disconnected the webcam's public feed but continued to monitor live images through webcam controls and shared further updates with National Park Service staff".

"The park sent a search and rescue team to find the hiker, who was caught in windy and rainy conditions with poor visibility," Cynthia Hernandez, a spokesperson for the National Park Service, said in a statement to the BBC.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66757169
 
This is a remarkable story.

In 1972 the Robertson family set off on a round the world trip in their yacht Lucette. Somewhere around the Galapagos a pod of Orca attacked & sank it.

It sank quickly & they only had time to save a few provisions, transferring to an inflatatabe raft & towing a dinghy, Ednamair. The inflatable was in poor condition & after some days they had to transfer to the dinghy - 6 people in a 9 ft boat.

They survived eating raw fish & turtles, sucking fish eyes for water, turtle blood enemas.

They were eventually rescued by a Japanese fishing trawler 38 days later. This programme is then 18 year old Douglas Robertson’s remembrance of the trip.

Article at National Maritime Museum with brief log of each day:
https://nmmc.co.uk/2022/05/the-50th-anniversary-of-the-robertson-family-rescue/

Ednamair at the National Maritime Museum, Falmouth.
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Found after the official search had been suspended.

A fisherman who had been missing for nearly two weeks has been found alive floating in a life raft about 70 miles (110km) off the west coast of the US.

Good Samaritans found the fisherman on Thursday, the US Coast Guard Pacific Northwest said in a statement one day after they had suspended their search. The Canadian rescuers who found him say he caught and ate a salmon to survive. The man, who was not identified, had left Gray Harbor in Washington state on 12 October on Evening, a 43-foot ship.

Officials did not name the rescuers or how they found him, but King-TV in Seattle identified them as Ryan Planes and his uncle John from Sooke, a town on Vancouver island in British Columbia.

"I saw what looked like a life raft in the distance and ran inside and put the binoculars on him and then he shot off a flare," Ryan told the network. We pulled him on board. He gave me a big hug and it was emotional," John continued.

He added that the man told him had been alone on the raft for 13 days, and that he caught a salmon after running out of food.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67246163
 

Attacked by Amazon’s largest venomous snake, man survives days in jungle​

Few creatures in the Amazon rainforest are more feared than the surucucu-pico-de-jaca — the deadly South American bushmaster. The world’s longest viper, and the largest venomous snake in the Americas, it can inject 500 milligrams of venom into its victims, causing severe pain, nausea, shock and, in extreme cases, a quick death.

But when one sank its fangs into Cícero José de Oliveira, 43, late last month, he didn’t feel any pain. Just a sharp, penetrating “needling” in the back of his left calf — little to betray the extreme danger into which he was now cast, or the pitched battle to survive that lay ahead.

In a story that has grabbed headlines all over Brazil, he would spend four more days in the forest, writhing atop a plastic sheet, with no treatment until the arrival of a rescue team — and antivenin.

AA1jBjRp.img


Oliveira had been sent deep into the forest in Amazonas state with two others to measure a property along the Juma River, more than 20 miles by foot from the nearest town. It was the last day of the five-day job. Most of the small team’s provisions were depleted.

His leg swelling grotesquely, Oliveira made it only a kilometer before collapsing. It was a pain unlike any he’d felt before...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...omous-snake-man-fights-to-survive/ar-AA1jBxwz

maximus otter
 
This was a truly lucky escape. After an intensive rescue and a helicopter flight to hospital DePaolo is expected to make a full recovery.

He can't dodge the medical bills though. A friend has set up a GoFundMe account to raise the necessary $150,000 or so.

‘I’m going to die’: hiker recalls harrowing night trapped under 10,000lb boulder

A hiker who spent hours trapped and badly injured under a nearly 10,000lb boulder on a remote California mountainside has spoken out about the ordeal, saying he thought to himself: “I’m going to die up here.”

Kevin DePaolo was hiking with a friend in the Inyo mountains earlier this month when the rock unexpectedly dislodged, he told the New York Times in one of his first interviews since the accident on 5 December.

It crushed his legs and came to a stop on his right leg. The mishap left DePaolo stuck with serious injuries and intense pain for 10 hours, and required a huge effort by rescuers to free him.
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They were expecting to find a troll under the bridge.

A driver trapped in his vehicle under a bridge for six days after a crash in Indiana was found by two fishermen scouting for fishing holes.

Mario Garcia and son-in-law Nivardo De La Torre had been killing time while waiting for their wives, police say. They ended up finding Matthew Reum, 27, of Mishawaka, whose truck had crashed off Interstate 94 on 20 December. In hospital, Mr Reum had one of his legs amputated and is now in intensive care, his union says.

Mr Garcia said he had seen the wrecked truck and was moving an airbag out of the way when Mr Reum "woke up". The driver told the men he had been trapped and pinned in his seat under the bridge near Portage, he recalled at a news conference held by the state police.

"He tried yelling and screaming, but nobody would hear him," Mr Garcia recalled the man telling him. "It was just quiet - just the sound of the water."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67831424
 
ramonmercado said:
They were expecting to find a troll under the bridge.

A driver trapped in his vehicle under a bridge for six days after a crash in Indiana was found by two fishermen scouting for fishing holes.
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That poor chap! :( Well done Garcia and De La Torre for not passing by on the other side.
 

Woman trapped for four days after falling 100ft off California road.​

She was found by a passing hiker; I can't see anything in the story about her disappearance being noticed by anybody, which is slightly surprising. I'd like to think if I was missing for four days somebody might notice!

Oh, and she didn't so much fall off the road as drive off the road, while she was trying to avoid a deer.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/08/california-woman-trapped-rescued-mount-baldy-road
 
cycleboy2 said:

Woman trapped for four days after falling 100ft off California road.​

She was found by a passing hiker; I can't see anything in the story about her disappearance being noticed by anybody, which is slightly surprising. I'd like to think if I was missing for four days somebody might notice!

Oh, and she didn't so much fall off the road as drive off the road, while she was trying to avoid a deer.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/08/california-woman-trapped-rescued-mount-baldy-road
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Where Julian Sands went missing.
 
She had a woof time.

A routine day of inspecting shipping containers at the Port of Houston in Texas turned into something extraordinary when US Coast Guard officer Ryan McMahon and his team heard barking coming from inside one of the thousands of containers.

“Oh, it’s scratching, dude,” one of the inspectors said in video they recorded as the team looked up at the container, stacked about 25 feet in the air.

A crane was used to bring it to the ground, and out popped a very sweet and friendly dog.

“As soon as we opened it, we could see the little dog’s face poking out. She was right there, like she knew we were going to be there to open it for her. And she just, she wasn’t scared or anything. She just seemed happy more than anything, to be out of that dark space and in the arms of people that were going to take care of her,” said Mr McMahon, a petty officer 2nd class.

https://www.breakingnews.ie/world/d...shipping-container-at-texas-port-1583957.html
 

Pacific castaways’ ‘HELP’ sign sparks US rescue mission​


A US Navy and Coast Guard operation on Tuesday rescued three mariners stranded on a tiny Pacific Ocean islet for more than a week after the trio spelled out “HELP” using palm fronds laid on a white-sand beach.

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The three men had been planning to fish the waters around the Pikelot Atoll, part of Micronesia, on March 31 when their 20-foot open skiff was caught by swells and its outboard motor was damaged, according to US Coast Guard officials.

They scrambled ashore on uninhabited Pikelot, but their radio ran out of battery power before they could call for help.

So the castaways gathered palm fronds from the 31-acre island, arranged them to spell out “HELP” on the beach, and waited.

The names of the stranded men have not been released by the Coast Guard.

For a week, the men lived off coconut meat, but they did have fresh water from a small well on the island.

The Coast Guard said a US Navy P-8A reconnaissance jet dispatched from Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, Japan, spotted the palm-frond “HELP” sign on the beach on April 7.

Lt. Chelsea Garcia, the search-and-rescue mission coordinator on the day the trio was located, said the sign was “crucial” to finding them in a search area that covered more than 103,000 square miles.

“This act of ingenuity was pivotal in guiding rescue efforts directly to their location,” Garcia said in a statement.

The Navy jet dropped survival packs to the three men and relayed their location to the rescue center.

The Coast Guard cutter Oliver Henry reached Pikelot on April 9.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/11/...-pikelot-island-us-rescue-intl-hnk/index.html

maximus otter
 
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