Sydney to Hobart: Man overboard survivor Luke Watkins opens up on near death experience
The Sydney to Hobart was rocked by two tragic deaths, but there was nearly a third, after Luke Watkins was thrown overboard. Now the Porco Rosso captain opens up on his near death experience.
Man overboard Luke Watkins was relieved to be home with his family in Hobart on Saturday after his brush with death in the 79th Rolex Sydney to Hobart yacht race on Friday.
Boat captain on Tasmanian yacht Porco Rosso, Watkins, a 37-year-old father of two, was washed over the side when the 50-footer crashed off the back of a rogue wave and was sent flying sideways.
Stuck under water alongside the boat until he was down to his last breath, Watkins was forced to unclip his lifeline and float away.
By the time he surfaced, Porco Rosso was already 200m away and two waves later it disappeared.
It left Watkins floating in an angry Tasman Sea in the black of night, being 3.14am.
“The best way to describe it is lonely … very, very lonely,” he said.
“It’s a big ocean and it was dark and it was rough and it was windy.
“Keeping my head above water was a struggle.
“I think I swallowed two or three litres of salt water by the end, which I ended up throwing up when I got back on the boat.
“I took a fair bit of water when we first went under, and I took a fair bit as I was floating around.”
Luke was tossed like a cork.
“I had waves breaking over my head and I found myself rolling down waves at times in a four to five metre sea,” he said.
“I could hear the waves coming, so I tried to keep the back of my head facing into the wind because I knew the boat was going downwind and that’s the direction they would be coming from.”
The safety manager on Porco Rosso and well-drilled in emergency situations, Luke activated his locator beacons so the boat could find him and the emergency services could also hone in on his position.
He had a head torch and glow sticks in his pockets.
“I wasn’t overly-scared,” he said.
“I knew I had the right gear on me and the AIS [Automatic Identification System] would bring the boat back to me and the PLB [Personal Locator Beacon] would bring emergency services to me.
“The thing that scared me the most was the hypothermia – I was worried about the timing of someone getting to me and being too cold and that becoming an issue.
“It’s definitely a scary thing but I tried to keep the bad thoughts away and keep focused on what I was trying to achieve and that was staying alive.”
It took 45 minutes for Porco Rosso to drop its sails, turn on the engine and motor the 4km back to find him.
“Eventually I saw a light, so I switched on my head torch and held that up,” he said.
“I didn’t see it again for about five minutes after that, so I thought maybe my mind was playing tricks on me.
“Then I saw their search light, so I held up my head torch and they found me and came over.”
That’s when a new set of problems arose.
“On the second attempt they threw a line to me, I grabbed it and they dragged me toward the boat,” Watkins said.
“When I was getting dragged, because there were about four of them pulling me in, it was actually dragging me under.
“The only thought going through my head was ‘there is no way I’m letting go of this rope’.
“With everything I had left, I held on … I don’t think I had much more left in me when I got there.
“The first thing I said to them was ‘I’m pretty happy to see you boys’.”
A crew member of the 66-footer Alive when it won the Sydney-Hobart on handicap in 2018, his near miss will not end his affair with the sport he loves.
“This hasn’t put me off sailing – I’d be quite happy to have a break for a little while and spend some time with the family,” he said.
“One of my thoughts out there was about my wife Callista and young kids _ three-year-old Archie and three-month-old Ella, at home.”
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