A father-of-four swam three hours to shore after he was washed out to sea and clung to his overturned tinnie for nine hours.
Ben Mackay was enjoying a few days camping and fishing alone on Aquila Island, off the Queensland coast between Rockhampton and Mackay.
On Saturday night the coal miner discovered his 4.2m dinghy was taking on water in rough seas and he waded in to move it to a better mooring.
Ben Mackay swam three hours to shore after he was washed out to sea and clung to his overturned tinnie for nine hours
But a big waved knocked him out of the boat as he tried to start it, and he whacked his head on the side as they both drifted away from shore.
By the time the 45-year-old recovered from the hit he could no longer see land in the darkness and was gripping his overturned tinnie.
When the skies cleared five hours later and he got his bearings he tried to push the boat in the direction of land but it wouldn’t budge.
‘It was choppy and s**tty and it was windy… I was getting moved around so much I wasn’t really sure where I was going to end up,’ he told the Mackay Daily Mercury.
‘You are thinking it is it. You like to think you’re tough but when you are in that situation you’re completely helpless… you have nothing,’ he said.
Mr Mackay was enjoying a few days camping and fishing alone on Aquila Island, off the Queensland coast between Rockhampton and Mackay
Ordeal started when a big waved knocked him out of the boat as he tried to start it, and he whacked his head on the side as they both drifted away from shore
With two metre waves propelled by 30km/h winds smashing into him, Mr Mackay thought about tying himself to the boat so his body could be found if he drowned.
Instead he emptied out the dinghy’s fuel tank and attached himself to it by rope in the hope it would help keep him afloat as he swam for his life in just his underwear.
‘The sun has come up, I have got a pair of jocks on, fair skin, I will cook to death on this boat if I don’t die of dehydration,’ he said.
‘You keep going because of your family… you keep going because this is not how it is going to end.’
Slowly and painfully he swam breaststroke and backstroke 1.5km over two hours until he could see land and finally crawled up the beach.
The shores of Aquila Island earlier on his trip with his dinghy moored in much calmer water
Mr Mackay made his way through the town of Flaggy Rock, borrowing a pair of yellow ladies crocs, three sizes too small, to protect his feet.
Eventually he banged on the door of a house with someone was home and the man inside gave him a drink of water and two Ferrero Rocher chocolates.
His rescuer drove him home to Clairview where he met his wife Larnie and called his eldest daughter Monika to wish her a happy 20th birthday.
‘You’re a bit late,’ she told him, before scolding him for almost dying on her birthday.