Rescued Fisherman Recounts 11-hour Ordeal Adrift At Sea

CHUKAI, June 12 (Bernama) -- "I feel like I have come back from the dead,” said a fisherman who was rescued after the boat he and two other fishermen was in capsized in Kemaman waters during a storm around 27.9 nautical miles near here last Wednesday.

Mahadi Jusoh, 51, spent 11 hours clinging onto the cover of a fish storage container for around 11 hours before he was finally found by a fishing boat at 10.30 am yesterday.

The boat he and his fellow fishermen Azan Muda, 68, and Nordin Mohammad, 61, were on went down shortly after midnight yesterday after it was hit by waves almost two metres high during a heavy downpour.

"In the dark, I couldn’t see the skipper, Azan and Nordin but I could hear their voices before they disappeared. I heard Nordin praying, while Azan asked me to try to cling on to anything that was floating to save myself.

"But after about 30 minutes, I couldn’t hear them anymore and that was when I prayed that all of us would be saved,” he said when met at the Kampung Fikri People’s Housing Project here today.

Mahadi said he kept his spirits up through the ordeal by remembering his wife and children and that he had prayed out loud several times before he was rescued by a fishing boat that was making its way through the area after the weather had cleared and the waves had calmed down.

"I might have drowned in another hour or two if I was not saved by the other fishermen as I was suffering from cramps and was feeling really tired,” he said, adding that his 11-hour ordeal would likely haunt him the rest of his life.

While thankful to have been rescued, Mahadi was still overcome with concern thinking of his two missing friends.

Meanwhile, Mahadi’s wife, Wan Siti Aishah Wan Yaakob, 50, was grateful that her husband was found safe and sound.

"I was shocked when my husband contacted me to tell me that he was safe.

“I immediately told my children and also accompanied Mahadi upon his arrival at the Tanjung Lumpur Jetty in Kuantan to lodge a report with the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) and the police, afterwhich he was sent to Kemaman Hospital,” she said.

-- BERNAMA