The crew of a Royal Australian Navy (RAN) ship successfully rescued a boater whose vessel had become tossed about due to bad weather in the Coral Sea off the coast of Queensland.
The dock landing ship HMAS Choules came to the aid of the boater, who has been identified as 44-year-old Lithuanian national Aurimas Mockus. He had earlier sent out an emergency beacon alert, which was duly received by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) at around 22:00 local time on Friday, February 28.
AMSA tasked two of its Challenger search and rescue (SAR) aircraft, established initial communications with Mr Mockus, and worked with the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and the RAN crew on Choules, which reached and rescued the boater on the morning of Monday, March 3.
The distressed boat was about 740 kilometres east of Mackay in Queensland at the same time that Tropical Cyclone Alfred swept through the area on Friday, bring wind speeds of up to 43 knots.
Mr Mockus had departed California in October 2024 in an attempt to row non-stop to Australia using only his small boat.
The ADF said Mr Mockus suffered fatigue from the ordeal and was given a medical assessment while on board Choules as the ship brought him to Sydney.