How this father and daughter miraculously survived being stranded at sea | 60 Minutes Australia

Glenn Anderson has learned the hard way one of life's very tough lessons no amount of careful planning will ever be enough to fully mitigate Danger seven weeks ago the experienced yachtsman took his 11 year old daughter Ruby on what was supposed to be an unforgettable Adventure a sailing trip exploring the Wild and remote coast of Western Australia turns out it's true they'll never forget it but not for the reasons they hoped they nearly died after a rogue wave capsized their yacht and they ended up in the ocean how they survived is incredible but also a reminder to never underestimate the sea come on through there you go Glenn this is some of the uh the articles that washed up on on Shore yeah so how did it ever come to this it's got some wetsuits there yes picking through all that's left of what they own this is all your school stuff eh it is 11 year old Ruby Anderson has a bucket full of pencils her dad Glenn a few certain wetsuits and an emergency Beacon yeah that's your EP yeah so this is the one this is the one we found on the beach yes more valuable than anything though they have their lives only just what do you think Ruby of the way your dad handle the whole thing yeah I just think he was really Brave and smart about it he just helped me through it and yeah I think he handled it really well I don't feel like a hero I just did what a parent would do in that situation and try and keep your your child alive can't get another Ruby can I get another Ruby for the last seven weeks Glenn and Ruby have both spent many hours thinking about how close they came to becoming statistics of the sea that they managed to survive is an amazing tale of not only strength but also extraordinary luck it All Began so differently with the promise of a thrilling getaway a 1200 kilometer sailing trip North along wa's rugged and remote Coast for Glenn who's divorced from Ruby's mum and can't spend as much time with his daughter as he would like this was supposed to be a special Adventure it's a great father-daughter thing to do isn't it yeah 100 yeah and I just thought it's going to bring us closer and get her to see get her more confident in the water which she had been over the last few years anyway I mean she's been doing it as long as I have um how wrong can you be they set off from Busselton in Glenn's 11 meter yacht the Impala 2 on Monday the 26th of May so we kind of did a short leg day leg from Bustleton to Bunbury further on in Fremantle they were joined by Glenn's mate Dane and two young women neria and Jordan who'd answered an ad to help out his crew um I was really excited to meet them and have them on board as crew members both experienced sailors yeah went over to rottnest for a couple of days yeah we had a couple of good days and right next didn't we yeah yeah got some really good quokka photos for the first few days the trip was everything they dreamed of idyllic Island stops gorgeous sunsets and close encounters with the big and the Beautiful [Music] [Music] but on the fourth night the oceans showed its ugliest sign we'd had a fair bit of seasickness among most of the crew so um yeah not many have said managed to eat much [Music] at that point what would you have estimated the the swell the conditions to be like and as well was definitely building throughout the night though uncomfortable life on board was not unbearable but as the sun came up the Seas continued to rise and a decision was made to head to safer Waters our plan was to take Anchorage at Sandy Cape which is just the north of durian Bay what happened what went wrong I thought I was going into a relatively safe Passage turns out it wasn't the irony is not lost on Glenn choosing what he thought was the safest option quickly turned into the most dangerous first thing I knew was um there was a wave breaking out to see from where we were and it started breaking out I looked at him very quickly became aware that it wasn't a white cap it was a fully broken wave and uh as quick as I could I've pulled the helm around to try and basically surf the wave to try to run with the wave try and run with the wave the wave picked us up fell to pick the stern up and we were kind of like facing down this wave and it was just too much speed and Power in the wave and through the boat sideways again and that's where I realized that we're going over and um so there's that moment in time where you thought we're in trouble yeah yeah I knew I was wasn't in control of the situation at that point and uh next thing we're in the water Ruby as this is happening where are you I was pretty tired and just kind of dozing off a bit [Music] and then I look up and then I just see the wave like crashing over the boat and then yeah next thing I knew I was in the water I swear dad grab me so for you the Horizon just sort of tipped upside down yeah it will happen so fast but in the Mayhem Ruby's leg gets caught and snaps as the force of the water hurls her into the ocean it must have been in a fair bit of pain yeah it was a seriously bad break yeah it was pretty painful I was trying to stay as calm as I could then from bad to worse almost immediately another massive wave breaks over the yacht filling it with water the three remaining crew jump overboard knowing the Impala 2 is seconds away from sinking so they've all got life jackets and grabbed a hold of the aperb I got away from it before it kind of started really going down pretty quickly it was like quick but slow at the same time yeah it was like time of standing still [Music] we got together activated the aperb and made sure it was appeared to be working the e-perb or emergency position indicating radio Beacon is their only hope it should alert Rescuers to their dire situation and more importantly exact location who had the ebook um naraya had the Epub um she kind of was holding on I was happy for her to have it as long as one of us had it I guess that was the main thing five people including a seriously injured Ruby are now in the Water The Yacht is no more and they're kilometers from Shore understandably anxiety levels are as high as the Raging Seas did anybody say look it's better if we all stick together yeah we did that was definitely said um but that's um I got to a point where um the girls had had seen a clear patch of beach that they thought they could make a passage to safely we're about to get there we had to swim into the current and use up more energy and I said to him we can't swim that way it's too much current but we have to go this way because you were effectively Towing Ruby yeah it's at this point the group made a critical decision to separate it was agreed Dane and the two women neria and Jordan would try to make it to the closest land swimming against the current while Glenn looking after Ruby would swim with the current in the direction of another Beach that was much further away generously or foolishly Glenn let the other group take the emergency Beacon looking back on it should you have just stayed together as a group yeah with that ePub well at the time there wasn't a lot of I guess cohesiveness about the group at that time maybe a bit of panic we're setting in but you wouldn't have been too happy about that would you because you're going one way and the e-purpose go on the other it definitely crossed my mind that it wasn't ideal um but at that point I'd made the decision that I could swim to shore I'd kind of looked at it and assessed it I can I can make that swim in the still treacherous ocean the two groups have split up but little does either know the e-perb has done its job ships of All Ships this is Australia Perth you have a concerned eater eater is registered to a 11 meter fiberglass yacht called impara II the distress signal has been picked up by the West Australian water police who've alerted local durian Bay rescue volunteers Wayne harston and Eddie Carnegie and local Fisheries officer Ray Worrell yeah I wanted to hear something like that you know it's it's an emergency so of course we've got our crew together and off off we went position 30 degrees 19.53 south 114 degrees 58.93 east the area of Bollinger Island okay foxtrot Delta a on road now it's the best use for the three crew members who are found within two hours but Glenn and Ruby are nowhere to be seen and without an e-perb the chances of finding two dots in the ocean are almost impossible absolutely we had no idea that e-perb was going was going north and Glenn was swimming East so he was going to a totally different direction to what we actually thought he was he was going [Music] it's not hard to see why durian Bay 220 kilometers north of Perth is a magnet for Holiday makers it's spectacular but the ocean here can change quickly as Glenn Anderson and his 11 year old daughter Ruby discovered seven weeks ago when their yacht capsized and they were hurled into the sea for Glenn returning to where he and Ruby almost lost their lives is not easy it'll tell you what it sounds like a bleeding obvious Glenn but it had to have been a very big wave yeah yeah it was huge yeah it was scary moment it's an unforgiving environment the ocean isn't it definitely deserves your respect and and caution if anyone had any doubts about the danger Glenn and Ruby endured as if On Cue the ocean validated everything one moment the sea was relatively calm the next a wave Came Crashing through the double glazed windscreen of the boat we were filming on yeah okay Laura I don't mind admitting it was a frightening few seconds a sudden and shocking display of how fast and furious the waves that pummeled Glenn and Ruby were that day away that size at least four times bigger it's gone through the window now we showed what had happened to local rescue volunteer Wayne harston what do you think it goes to show you how quickly it can happen doesn't it that's the point of the whole story yeah exactly this is how it can change so quickly incredibly Glenn and Ruby battled much worse conditions as they desperately tried to swim to shore there was a lot of times where we had to like duck under the waves because they were going to break on us but it was mostly just like really high as well when the waves come I'd say to Ruby all right big breath hold they both take a big breath and I'm a bit tumble by the wave and pop up on the other side were you cold I think it was too cold for me to feel the cold so cold that Ruby was beginning to suffer hypothermia by now the pear had been in the water for about four hours so it wasn't just the conditions but the clock they were fighting you spotted something right frantically searching for them with a local volunteer Rescuers but they've been sent in the wrong direction because the three crew with the e-perb had swung away from Glenn and Ruby once we've got the EPO on board we were told by the water police to switch it on put it back in the water they wanted to then monitor which way the current was going and they said that's where probably the people will be that we're looking for but that wasn't much wasn't it wasn't it was to take the that Epi was going was going north and Glenn was swimming East so he was going to a totally different direction to what we actually thought he was going what was Dad saying to you at that time he just kept asking me are you okay we're gonna make it stuff like that so you really urged each other on well being strong for her helped me be strong for the whole situation I think was there a single moment where you doubted yourself for the plan or you thought gee this is not looking good maybe a little bit towards the end I knew from previous first aid training that um the symptoms of the stages of hypothermia I knew that she was going from a mild case to to a pretty um severe case very speech was starting to change and her color was was starting to change and she was starting to say some funny things or maybe not funny but I could say she was going downhill I thought I need to get her out of the water soon even though Glenn had managed to make it this far just offshore here Ruby's condition was deteriorating badly every second was crucial but without an e-perb to pinpoint their exact location nobody realized just how far they'd managed to drift amazingly though it was one sheer Stroke of Luck that sent Rescuers in the right direction we actually wouldn't have actually found them we were heading in because one of my boys was very sick that's amazing so you wouldn't have been heading in that direction if one of your crew members hadn't been vomiting correct the water police would have had us out on other other areas searching in grid searches we would have never found him thank goodness for seasickness it is amazing it must have been amazing when you saw that coming toward you I think that the relief to know that it wasn't all just on me anymore to keep Ruby alive that there was other people that would help in that and that she was going to get the best attention um and that that we were going to be okay it was a Herculean effort on his behalf wasn't it a miracle I reckon because um for him to hold that little girl up for so long and and swim so far it's quite incredible quite incredible yeah he said I looked like a corpse when they pulled me out of the water really yeah I was looking at my fingers every now and then and my nails are purple and my fingers was so wrinkly and white I was like oh my God just in the nick of time yeah yeah but I'd hate to think what would happen if it were if it were another hour in the water well look who's here right look who's here hey Glenn hey Wayne how are you mate oh good mate lovely good to see you all right good to see you see you you're all right good on you Ruby Hello darling how are you there you go buddy everyone knows how close this story came to not having a happy ending is this young girl who's looking a little bit different today aren't you yeah yeah it's the unspoken thought that makes Glenn and Ruby's reunion with their Rescuers even more special bravest young lady on my boat that's for sure just the relief for that kind of when I could say to Ruby yeah this is how about like we're going on this one and once we're on that boat I just that's when I knew that was like we'll definitely be okay I just can't thank you guys enough for for what you do you're both so brave I can't believe it isn't that crazy like even now looking out at it yeah maybe it came all that way today Ruby's broken leg is on the mend she'll be back up and about very soon and even more remarkably despite their ocean ordeal Glenn and Ruby are already planning their next adventure together we might just go out on the bay to start with but it hasn't put you off like I don't think about it it doesn't really make me sad or like traumatized like I'm not scared of the ocean like I'm happy to go back I told you she was amazing hello I'm Tom steinford thanks for watching 60 Minutes Australia 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Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 3,061,916

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Tara Brown, Liam Bartlett, Tom Steinfort, Sarah Abo, karl stefanovic, 60Mins, #60Mins, stranded, capsized, castaway, rescue, father, daughter, survival, ship, sail, yacht, hero, rescued, fate, freak accident, wave, rogue, seas, ocean, mother nature, alive, i survived, i shouldn't be alive

Id: TsAOo40n9b8

Length: 20min 8sec (1208 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 18 2021