A sailor who fell overboard survived by clinging to a “piece of sea rubbish”, revealed his son.
Vidav Perevertilov spent 14-hours in the water after he fell off the cargo ship into the Pacific Ocean in the early hours of the morning.
The man, 52, who was not wearing a life jacket, credits his decision to swim towards a “clack dot” several kilometres away with saving his life.
The black dot turned out to be a fishing buoy, which he held onto until his rescue.
“He looked about 20 years older and very tired but he was alive,” said his son, Marat.
Perevertilov is the Lithuanian chief engineer of the Silver Supporter, which was making a supply run between New Zealand’s Tauranga port and the isolated British territory of Pitcairn.
Following a shift in the engine room pumping fuel, he had felt “hot and dizzy”, said his son. He then walked out onto the deck to recover at around 04:00 in the morning on 16 February, before falling.
Marat, who got details of his father’s survival tale via message chats, believes he may have fainted as he does not remember going over.
Unaware that a man had fallen overboard, the ship sailed away.
