Two men and their 11-year-old sons were found stranded in the Pacific Ocean – using a beer cooler as a floatation device.
Their fishing trip turned into a disaster when a fire broke out in the engine room of their 41-ft cruise boat five miles off the coast of Sydney, Australia, at dawn on Thursday.
[Raw helicopter footage of the rescue courtesy of Sky News has no audio]
After they all leapt out of the boat, the boat sank in under a minute.
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The stricken group had no other choice but to cling on to the life-saving beer cooler until rescue crews arrived 45 minutes later.
Mr Smiles, told reporters “I grabbed the EPIRB (an emergency beacon), grabbed my wallet, ran out. By that time Rick had lifejackets on the boys. I grabbed the Esky [beer cooler], jumped off the back deck.
“It was just something to float on. I knew that we would be in the water. I knew we were beyond the point of no return.”
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A helicopter dropped an inflatable raft into the water to winch them to safety, but water police instead took them back to the shore.
Mr Matthews was treated in hospital for burns to his leg from leaking petrol.
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