Sailor Falls In Water And Swims For 17 Km To Cheat On His Fate In Shark-Infested Panama

A sailor from Australia, after falling from a boat in the waters of Panama, swam for about 17km through shark-infested waters in the dark and survived to narrate the tale.

John Deer did not have safety equipment like a life jacket. In 2019, John was on a trip to sail all over the world. He had gone fishing in San Blas Islands in Panama when he fell overboard and was left stranded at what is popular as the ‘shark point’. The matter worsened as his boat was on the auto pilot mode, so it kept sailing away. That left John alone at night in the waters.

John shared that he was initially convinced that he’d die as it was almost 5 pm and no one was aware that he was in Panama. But some moments later, he switched to survival mode to cheat his fate.

Later on, he mentioned on GoFundMe, a fundraiser organized by a friend that he struggled with for a while with the realization of imminent death, not wanting to accept what seemed like his fate, so he decided to give up on the idea and was determined to swim.

John added that he has spoken about the same incident to many sailors. He mentioned that when he saw his safety, boat, and home sailing away from him, he was 9nm away offshore. That is nearly 17km.

John was not someone who was accustomed to swimming long distances. The sailor shared that he would never attempt to swim even 200m let alone 17km. However, thinking of his survival, he convinced his mind and gave it a shot. He added that he did not have any other option but give up to drown. He also stayed calm and tried conserving energy.

John followed alternating breaststrokes and back frog strokes and used the straight side of the moon as his navigation aid.

Reference: Mirror, News 18