Tim Shaddock was once a man in a suit and tie who worked for a big tech company. When he realized that this lifestyle did not go with his way of thinking, he went with his computer deep into nature, in the mountains and in lost places of Asia. Then his life opened to the sea, the same sea that has been about to end him. In 2020, his new steps took him to Mexico and he decided to embark from La Paz, in Baja California Sur, to French Polynesia. Almost 2,000 kilometers from land and without communication, a storm tore off his sail, stopped his engine and left him adrift in the widest part of the Pacific. A tuna boat found him on July 12 and rescued him with his dog, Bella. Now, from the coast of Colima, he remembers the 90 days he survived between the sky and the water, eating raw fish and some duck that landed on his catamaran.
The waves of the Pacific break the silence on the beach of Manzanillo, the capital of Colima. Shaddock (Sydney, Australia, 54 years old) has been there since last Tuesday, staying in one of the hotels that draw the local landscape, seeking to stabilize his health and trying to fix his immigration status. He does not forget the three months in which he was adrift with his dog. The sailor has very bluish eyes, a cap with an open clasp and a thick beard. He just woke up from his nap. "I'm fine. I've been taking care of myself here. I am very grateful to Mexico and to all the people who saved my life. I am better here than I was at sea," he says in an interview with this newspaper.
The beach of Manzanillo, Colima where the Australian castaway Timothy Shaddock was taken, rescued on July 12, 2023 in the Pacific Ocean.
The opening to telecommuting meant Shaddock moved away from his native Sydney to the United States as the COVID-19 virus began to wreak havoc around the world. The pandemic caused Australia to close its borders for more than a year, leaving thousands of Australians out ("I was one of those 20,000," he says). His stay in the North American country was complicated by visa restrictions. And he decided to travel to Querétaro. From there he teleworked for a season. He says he met Bella in the mountains of San Miguel Allende about three years ago. She was a little cattle bitch: "She followed me everywhere. And I thought, 'I can't have a dog.'" But Bella kept following him wherever he went.
After months corseted on the Mexican border, he decided to change his dynamic. He went to Puerto Vallarta (Jalisco) in a car, which Bella jumped up. There he bought the Aloha Toa, the small catamaran from which he made his home: "Once I started living on the boat, it was very difficult to work remotely."
He planned his trip on the ocean for two years. "When I bought the boat, summer and hurricane season were coming. I had to stay there [in Puerto Vallarta], and wait to sail to La Paz across the Sea of Cortez." That first year, he began to adapt the boat for the future voyage. "I had to have a way to make sure I would only use fuel to get in and out of port and sail [under sail] the rest of the time and water."
Phones, GPS and an odyssey
The sea water leaves a smell of fresh fish throughout the port of Manzanillo. The place is one of the first photographs seen by the Australian upon his arrival on the coast, last Tuesday. The sun is burning, and people take refuge in the shade of the trees. René Tapia (Peche), 53, sweeps the ground, protected by a long-sleeved polo shirt and a hat. In recent days he has heard of that Australian who was found almost 2,000 kilometers away. "Thank God there was a chance to rescue him. It's weird, if it takes us three months to get food here [on land], imagine there..." Before working in the cleaning, he assures that he was part of the crews of Grupomar, the company that owns the María Delia. Until a giant tuna fell on his shoulder, threw him into the sea and forced him to leave work. Peche says that in those voyages of "20, 30 or 50 days" they also found cases like Shaddock's: sailors who broke the engines of their boats.
This year, Shaddock decided to take another step to start his journey across the vast ocean. He made revisions and began the first test in the open sea, traveling to La Paz: "It's the year I really say, 'OK, I've colonized the Sea of Cortez. How would I do it in the Pacific?" The journey helped him to see that he could not carry much fuel or water. And he completed the modifications in the Aloha Toa: he put solar panels to ensure the operation of his equipment, put a water desalination plant, prepared food reserves and tried to make it lighter, to have greater ease when using the candle. Among all those preparations, he also brought several GPS and mobile phones, which served as backup for the locator, as he says: "You know you can't call with them [with the phones], but the GPS still works if you have downloaded maps." Despite these systems, the Maria Delia was the only vessel to approach the catamaran.
He is not yet clear about the specific date on which he began the trip. "I guess it was in April. On April 1. I missed the weather window [the moment of waiting for the weather conditions to be suitable]. You have certain weather conditions that you need to navigate. I needed to save fuel, and I was waiting for the wind," he explains. Shaddock wanted his trip not to coincide with the hurricane season in the Pacific, which began on May 15.
Shark sushi
The Australian prepared a pantry before starting the trip: some rice, cans of tuna and some other canned food that did not need refrigeration. On the boat, he tried to coordinate that food with fishing. If one day there was no success, he resorted to cans. "My dog and I ate together and drank water together from a cup. She always ate with me. I would eat a little and then give a little to her. If she had fish, we would cut the fish and she would eat it, with bones and everything," he recalls.
The Australian castaway Timothy Shaddock.cesar rodriguez
Shaddock hunts and fishes in different ways. He sinks the anchor of the catamaran in the water, takes a breath and descends the rope, armed with a fishing rifle. Wait patiently for a fish to pass and boom!, there has been luck. The situation is different depending on the day: a duck lands on the boat, and begins to squawk. Bella seems to talk to him with her barks. The Australian gets up quickly, grabs the bird by the neck and slits its throat. Another time, the reward is greater. He throws a line into the water, and manages to catch a shark. He drags the animal to the back of the boat and stabs it. "That's how it was, shark sushi," he jokes. At first I cooked the food with a small stove, but it soon broke down. After being diagnosed with cancer in the 90s, the Australian started a raw vegan diet, which has alternated over time. "I always went back to meat if I got too thin, like I do now," he says.
One of the storms that crossed the Pacific destroyed the boat's engine and sail. Shaddock tried to fix the sail, but hit the mast several times while trying to climb onto it. He preferred to lower it. I didn't see a way to fix it until it recovered.
On July 7, Hurricane Calvin began to form about 300 kilometers from Manzanillo. On its way to the Pacific, it began to lose strength (it reached gusts of 150 kilometers per hour). On July 12, about 200 kilometers off the coast of Colima, Shaddock was still adrift, close to the hurricane, which could have proved fatal. "It's a complicated situation. When the storm hits, your options are minimal [...] There's no way you can do much on the boat," he says.
He was lucky. A helicopter that was transiting the place in search of the dark spots left by the schools of fish in the sea saw the small white boat. And he gave notice to the tuna vessel Maria Delia. A small boat from the ship approached the Aloha Toa.
"I had to make a decision. If he didn't go with these people, would he survive? It became clear that probably not," Shaddock recalls from the hotel. The sailor climbed into the boat, but did not burst into tears until he was safe and sound on the ship Maria Delia.
'Bella', the puppy who became strong
The crew saw the dog healthier than the castaway who boarded the boat. Bella approached Genaro Rosales, one of the ship's navigators, in the first moments. Rosales began, along with one of his companions, to take care of the wound that the dog had in the armpit. But he had more sympathy with him. The Australian saw how he treated her: "He loved Bella, and I was happy that she went with him." Rosales has ended up adopting it this last week.
Timothy Shaddock with 'Bella' aboard his boat. Mar Group
Shaddock remembers Bella as the puppy he found in San Miguel Allende, who eventually became a strong dog ("stronger than me," he says). He admits that Australia's restrictions on the importation of dogs and cats – and that they go through a minimum of 10 days of quarantine and the request for several tests – were part of the decision to give Bella away. "If it had been easy to take her to Australia, maybe I would have thought about staying with her. But Australia is an island continent and they don't have anything like rabies [the main reason the country imposes restrictions on these animals] or anything like that. He was with me at sea for three months. That's quarantine enough. I wanted her to be happy. I didn't want to put her through all those things," he says.
From the hotel where you rest, you can see the waves of the Pacific crashing against the coast. From time to time the horns of the ships floating on the horizon sound.
"Will you sail again?"
"I think I'll sail in the future, though probably on a bigger ship. Maybe on a cruise ship, sitting in my armchair, eating my food and air-conditioned, he jokes.
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