‘Like Being Born Again’: Fisherman Floats for 11 Hours After Boat Sinks

CHUKAI – A fisherman who survived after floating for 11 hours when the boat he was in with two of his colleagues sank during a storm in the waters of Kerteh, approximately 27.9 nautical miles from Kuala Kemaman on Wednesday, admitted that he felt like he had “come back from the dead.”

Mahadi Jusoh, 51, said that after the boat sank at 12.30 midnight after being hit by large waves of about two metres high, he clung to the lid of a fish storage container before being found by another fishing boat at 10.30 am.

He said that in the heavy rain and pitch darkness, he could not see the skipper, Azan Muda, 68, or Nordin Mohammad, 61, and only heard their voices before they disappeared.

“I heard Nordin’s voice reciting the two sentences of the Shahadah (Islamic declaration of faith), while Azan asked me to reach for items floating to save myself.

“But within about 30 minutes, the voices of Nordin and Azan could no longer be heard, and at that time I only prayed that we would all be safe,” he said when met at the Kampung Fikri People’s Housing Project here today.

Mahadi said that thoughts of his wife and children became his motivation to continue surviving through that terrifying ordeal.

He said that he also uttered the call to prayer (azan) several times before being rescued by a fishing boat that happened to be in the area after the weather cleared and the waves calmed down.

“I would probably have drowned if I had not been rescued within one to two hours, considering that by then I was suffering from muscle cramps and exhaustion,” he said.

Mahadi said the incident was the worst nightmare of his entire life since becoming a fisherman at the young age of 14.

Sinar Harian