Trapped in mountainous seas whipped up by Cyclone Isa, the 11 men were rescued from a remote atoll by Australia.
Indonesian fisherman Badco Said Jalating couldn’t hold back tears as he was reunited with his family this week after drifting at sea for more than 30 hours when the fishing boat he was on sank during Cyclone Isa.
Hugging his mother and rocking his young son, 40-year-old Badco wiped away tears as he returned to Rote Island in eastern Indonesia.
“I kept thinking about my child,” he told Al Jazeera. “While swimming at night, I heard my son’s voice calling my name. It gave me strength.”
Badco was one of 11 Indonesian fishermen shipwrecked on Bedwell Island, a remote, open and inhospitable stretch of white sand with no natural shelter or freshwater sources, when Cyclone Isa whipped up the seas off northwestern Australia before making landfall as one of the fiercest storms. ever reach the country.
He had left Rote Island with nine other men, including his brother, aboard the Putri Jaya, a typical Indonesian fishing boat. Australian authorities say the boat probably sank in “extreme weather conditions” on April 11 or 12. The other members of the crew were said to have drowned.
Badco’s bereaved mother said she begged her sons not to go to sea because of the weather conditions, but they had little choice.
“Like all fishermen here, they have to listen to their boss,” she said. “If the boss says you’re going, you have to go.”
When Badco finally arrived at Bedwell, he was discovered by 10 fellow residents of Rote Island, the crew of the Express 1, which had run aground on the island some 300 km (200 mi) west of the Australian coastal town of Broome, on April 12.
Wilhemus Bora’a, the ship’s 40-year-old captain, recalled that Badco was naked after so many hours at sea.
‘We gave him clothes,’ said Wilhemus. “I feel sad (about what happened to their boat) because they were fishermen like us – poor people.”
The 11 men eventually spent six days on Bedwell before being spotted by Australian authorities who conducted routine aerial surveillance and later taken off the island.
Wilhemus, who has four children, including a one-year-old baby, said they had no food and drank salt water. However, they managed to make a simple shelter from the debris of the boat.
“The wind took us until we ran aground on that atoll,” he said. “There was nothing there. Our boat was broken and we didn’t eat for six days.”
Indonesian authorities said they were grateful to Australia for rescuing the men, but said they went to sea without a permit.
“If they had asked for a permit, we would have told them about the weather,” said Merry Foenay, the head of the fisheries authority in West Nusa Tenggara, where Rote is located. “If the weather is not good, we will not issue the permit.”
As their boats tossed about in the giant waves, the men doubted they would make it home.
Badco recalled that Putri Jaya was overwhelmed by the strong wind and capsized. At that time the crew was still together.
“I grabbed my brother’s arm and hung onto the boat,” he recalls. “But a tree trunk hit me and I was separated from my brother.”
Then another wave crashed into him.
“I lost my grip on the boat. I couldn’t do anything anymore.”
Without a life jacket to keep him afloat, Badco said he conserved energy by following the current and alternating the use of his legs and arms.
Reunited with the son whose image had made him pass through the darkness, Badco hugged him tightly.
“I still go to the sea, but I check the weather first,” he said.
With reporting by Eliazar Ballo on Rote Island, Indonesia.