Alone: Lost Overboard in the Indian Ocean

Lost overboard at night in a storm - no one saw him fall, and no one could hear him shout . . .

Brett Archibald was on 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. He came to 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.

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

This is the remarkable story of Brett's ordeal, and his miraculous rescue after twenty-eight hours alone in the ocean; also of his family and friends back home and around the world, and the Australian skipper whose sheer doggedness and instinct played such a key role in saving Brett.

'This is an incredible, incredible story'
Oscar Chalupsky, twelve-time Molokai Paddleboard World Champion