Australian family safe after two-day ordeal at sea

An Australian family and three locals finally reached the safety of the shore at pre-dawn on Tuesday after surviving a two-day ordeal at sea when their ship was at the mercy of the ocean current, following a machine malfunction and a radio breakdown. The incident triggered a massive search and rescue operation in Bali and its neighboring island, Lombok.

The ship, a 24-meter long wooden phinisi (traditional wooden sail ship) named Bulan Purnama, reached its base port at Serangan island at 2:30 a.m. after the Australian family managed to fix the broken machine.

Danny Cusack, his wife Margaret Cusack, their son Blake Cusack, and their daughter Eliza Cusack, were seen very happy when they arrived at the port. “It was really, really scary. We’re glad to be here again,” Margaret Cusack said.

“We haven’t slept in more than 20 hours. We were really scared. We couldn’t sleep until three hours ago when we finally spotted an island from the ocean,” Eliza Cusack added.

The vessel, operated by PT Fierst to serve a regular Bali–Lombok tour for tourists, left Serangan for Nusa Lembongan on Sunday afternoon. Aboard the ship were three crews and the Australian family, which was looking forward for three days of water sport activities in Lem-bongan, a tiny island offshore Bali.

Unfortunately, the ship’s machine malfunctioned when it reached Badung Strait, a body of water known for its ferocious wave and strong undercurrent.

“Last night, the currents were very strong and the weather was very bad. We couldn’t control the ship because [there was] no engine. The ship rocked and swayed. There was a thunderstorm around us, [it was] very, very scary. But we couldn’t do anything. We had to just go with the tide,” Danny Cusack said.

At one time, he realized that the current had dragged the ship into the Indian Ocean, some 70 miles away from Bali. They couldn’t ask for help since all communication devices were not working.

“We lost contact as we were about 25 miles from the island. There was no signal for cell phone, the radio was the same,” he said.

The ship’s operator notified the ports authority and Search and Rescue (SAR) team on Sunday evening that they had lost contact with the boat. Early morning of the following day, the authority mounted a massive search operation involving hundreds of personnel with speedboats, ships and a helicopter. Bad weather tormented the operation.

“We realized that we had a big problem. So we looked at the engine again. I thought the problem was a blocked transmission cooling system. We pulled it into parts, cleaned it, and put it back together. It worked okay. It took about one hour to repair the engine, and then we went slowly back to Bali,’’ Danny said.

The hardest part of the ordeal, he recalled, was to calm down his wife and daughter.

“My son and I, we were very worried. But we did not want to make them worry. So we tried to say, it’s not too bad, everything is good, but actually, yesterday, we thought it was very, very bad.”

He feared that the drifting ship might have accidentally entered a sea line regularly traversed by big ships, which made a collision more likely. During the ordeal, the family spotted three big ships in the Indian Ocean.

“We flashed them with spotlight but none stopped. Maybe they thought we were pirates,” he said.

After the incident, Danny said that they would continue their holiday. “Yes, we will be staying in Bali for another five or six days, and will continue our holiday to Nusa Lembongan.”

The trip’s organizer, Ayi Fajri Iskandar, said he was very grateful that the ship and passengers were safe.