Tourist on surfing holiday spends 27 hours in sea after falling overboard

A tourist who spent 27 hours floating at sea after falling overboard a boat in Indonesia has been found alive.

Brett Archibald, 50, from South Africa, was enjoying a surfing holiday when he fell off the private charter boat, Naga Laut, off the coast of Sumatra near Padang, northern Indonesia.

It is believed he got up in the night suffering with seasickness, and fell overboard when he passed out on the deck.

He woke up to see the boat sailing away, and then endured 27 hours at sea, where he was stung by jellyfish, bitten by fish, almost drowned eight times, and even had a seagull trying to peck his eyes out.

According to The South African, he was only discovered missing when his friend, Jean-Marc Tostee, noticed him missing at breakfast and went to search for him, with no success.

The Independent reports that once the crew of the Naga Laut discovered he was missing, they turned the boat around and retraced their path.

Other charter boats, as well as Indonesian authorities, joined in the search, and he was spotted floating on his back on Wednesday morning by Barrenjoey, part of the Sydney-owned All Aboard Travel charter fleet.

He was found neat Sipora Island, around 10 miles from where he fell overboard.

Archibald's wife Anita had already set up a Facebook page 'Searching For Brett Archibald' urging people to help, and it was happily updated with: "He has been found! Sunburnt, dehydrated but alive."

But he won't be returning home until he's fitted in a bit of surfing, adding that he "didn't come all this way to tread water for 27 hours", reports TNT Magazine.

After paying tribute to his rescuers, he reboarded the Naga Laut, and headed on to Pedang, feeling, we presume, pretty lucky to have been found.

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