Brett Archibald: how a 28-hour ordeal changed my life

In the below audio clips, we discuss Brett Archibald’s experience in the Ocean from a physiological and psychological prospective, and we will also hear from Brett himself – reading from his book, Alone, and talking about how his attitude to life has shifted since his rescue.

In April 2013, fifty-year-old Brett Archibald was on board a surf-charter boat, making a night-time crossing of the Mentawai Strait off Sumatra, Indonesia. In the middle of a storm, ill with severe food poisoning, Brett was being sick overboard when, for a moment, he blacked out. When he came to, he found himself alone in the raging sea, being spun as if in a washing machine. Sixty miles from shore, Brett saw the lights of his boat disappearing into the darkness. It was very quickly clear that no one had seen him fall, and that no one would hear his shouts for help. He was alone in the ocean.

It would be eight hours before his friends realised he was missing.

At that point a frantic search began, for a single man hopefully still alive somewhere in thousands of square miles of heaving waves. The Mentawai Strait is remote and the rough weather meant that no planes or helicopters could assist in the search.

SURVIVING IN THE OCEAN

AFTER THE RESCUE