He fell into the sea without a life jacket but survived by hanging onto a piece of marine debris for 16 hours.

Vidam Perevertilov, a 52-year-old sailor, nearly died on February 16 when he fell overboard the freighter Silver Supporter while carrying out his routine refueling between Tayranga and Pitcairn Island in the middle of the South Pacific.

He fell into the icy waters without a life jacket, but finding himself in the middle of the sea, Perevertilov put all his hopes on a small spot on the horizon and began to swim. A decision that saved his life.

He saw nothing around him, it was almost 4 a.m. and everything was completely dark. Vidam’s forces were depleted as he struggled desperately to stay afloat, and his hopes of being saved were dashed when his ship, unaware that it had fallen into the water, set sail.

With the sun, the spirit returned to his body. “I could see a black dot on the horizon still several kilometers away ”, his son Marat told the New Zealander Things from Lithuania.

“She started to swim towards him. His will to survive was strong, but he told me that until the sun came up he had a hard time staying afloat. I probably would have drowned right away, but he always stayed fit and healthy and that’s why I think he could survive. “added

Marat has been in contact with his father since he was rescued and has heard his incredible story of survival through message conversations.

He conveys his thanks and Vidam’s gratitude to all the rescuers who saved his family from tragedy.

Man in the water

Vidam struggled after completing a night shift in Silver Supporter’s engine room, pumping fuel.

“After he finished his shift he started to feel hot and dizzy so he went to the back deck to recover.Said Marat.

“He doesn’t remember falling overboard. May have passed out», He clarified.

It took about six hours for the crew to realize that Vidam was missing. A general alarm has been triggered. Everyone on board has been counted. One was missing.

The captain turned around and emitted an emergency radio. Work logs showed that Vidam’s last logbook was when he filled out a work report after his 4am shift.

Coordinates of the ship’s location at that time were sent to JRCC Tahiti and distress messages were transmitted by radio to ships in the area.

Météo-France, a French national meteorological service, took note of the distress signal and offered to help calculate the likely drift patterns. French Navy planes based in Polynesia rushed to help with the search.

As the rescue effort increased, Vidam finished his long swim towards the black spot he had bet on.

“It was an old fishing buoySaid Marat. “It wasn’t anchored to anything or to a ship, it was just a piece of marine debris.”

It was bad. But he floated. It was all Vidam needed. Now he could swing in the water and conserve his energy.

But there was a new problem, the sun that helped him find his life jacket was hitting him now, burning his skin and drying his throat.

Vidam could do nothing but wait and endure it. He watched the horizon darken as it burned, hoping a ship would arrive before sunset.

Suddenly, a familiar ship appeared on the horizon. The money supporter. He waved at her and screamed desperately.

“What happened next was almost inexplicable,” Said Marat. “The Silver Supporter was researching and one of the passengers said he heard a faint human cry from the starboard side of the ship.”

Marat learned that the captain made the decision to change his search vector to investigate, but after 10 minutes they saw nothing. They rotated the ship back to its original research pattern and en route, one of the lookouts saw a hand raised on the surface of the sea.

“They went up, threw a life jacket at him, climbed down a ladder and a crew member took him on board,” Marat said. “He looked about 20 years older and very tired, but he was alive. It was amazing that someone heard a voice, or even if they thought they heard a voice, and it all worked from there. “

British High Commissioner Laura Clarke, who is also Governor of the Pitcairn Islands, compared survival to the story of Captain William Bligh, who in 1789 was thrown adrift from his ship Bounty after a mutiny, but sailed 6,700 kilometers to a safe place in an open field.

The Bounty mutineers became the original inhabitants of Pitcairn Island.

Marat says the ordeal affected his father, but he is recovering well so far.

“Now he talks a lot about God in the messages, and before he was not a very religious person,” he said. “He thought a lot about his whole life while in the ocean.”

Marat asked his father why he didn’t have the buoy on board as a souvenir.

“Funny, he said he wanted to leave it there so he could save someone else’s life.”, he stressed.

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