After being stranded at sea for over 30 hours when the fishing boat he was on sank during Cyclone Isa, Indonesian fisherman Badco Said Jalating was reunited with his family this week, and the emotional moment was captured on camera. Badco wiped away tears as he hugged his mother and held his young son, saying, “I kept thinking of my child. When I was swimming at night, I heard my son’s voice calling my name. It gave me strength.”
Badco was one of 11 Indonesian fishermen who were shipwrecked on Bedwell Island, a remote and inhospitable stretch of white sand with no natural shelter or freshwater sources, as Cyclone Isa whipped up the seas off northwestern Australia before making landfall as one of the most ferocious storms ever to hit the country. Badco had left Rote Island with nine other men, including his brother, on board the Putri Jaya, a typical Indonesian-style fishing boat. Australian authorities say the boat probably sank in “extreme weather conditions” on April 11 or 12, and the other members of the crew are thought to have drowned.
Badco’s mother, who was grief-stricken, said she had begged her sons not to go to sea because of the weather conditions, but they had little choice.
2023-05-04 23:30:03 ‘I kept thinking of my child’: Shipwrecked Indonesians back home
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