‘Absolutely buggered’: paddleboarding couple survive three days adrift off Queensland coast

A Queensland man who rescued a couple who say they spent three days adrift at sea has told the extraordinary tale of their survival.

Lorne Benussi said he had just fallen asleep on Monday night when he heard screams for help outside his boat.

He and his father, Denis, had been on a recreational fishing trip and were anchored at a sandbar in Yellow Patch on Curtis Island.

Benussi said when he shone a torch into the water, he spotted a young couple going under as they struggled in the sea.

The Benussis raced over in their tinny, battling torrential rain and strong winds to rescue the couple.

When they arrived, they found the pair had been treading water and were so weak they had to be dragged into the boat.

“They just collapsed, they could hardly move. They were just absolutely buggered, the pair of them,” Benussi said.

He said they took the couple back to the boat, where they ate, drank and had hot showers.

“The young bloke, he must have drank a bit of salt water,” Benussi said. “He was sort of cramping and very broken.

“I gave them cordial, trying to get their sugars up … they were up and down all night trying to get water.”

Lorne Benussi and his father, Denis, were anchored at a sandbar at Yellow Patch when they said they heard the couple’s calls for help.

Benussi said the exhausted couple slept for most of their time onboard. When they finally woke up, they told him they had been at North West Island, about 55km east of Yellow Patch.

The couple, who are believed to be in their 40s and from Brisbane, said they had been dropped off at the island on Saturday for a camping trip.

Benussi said he understood the couple had planned to remain on the island until next Tuesday, but had drifted out into the ocean after getting caught in a tide while paddleboarding.

North West Island is remote and off-grid. It does not have reliable reception and visitors are advised to bring VHF marine band radios with them on camping trips.

The couple were among about 25 passengers who travelled by boat from Gladstone to the island on Saturday, according to Curtis Ferry Services’ owner Adam Balkin.

“The easiest way to explain it is it’s a wilderness experience,” Balkin said of the island.

“There’s no fires, no generators. You either gotta have battery-powered fridges or gas cooker here and bring your own water.”

He said the couple’s camping gear was being packed up and returned to the mainland on Wednesday.

“Obviously we’ve still got their car parked in our yard so we will be catching up with them some point over the next 24 to 48 hours.”

He said there had been between 40 and 50 people camping on the island in recent days, adding it was important to share plans with fellow campers in such an isolated location.

“It’’s a very unfortunate circumstance and it’s pretty rare. That’s the first time they’ve lost anyone from the island in a paddleboard situation.”

Benussi said the couple were extremely lucky to have floated towards the coast when they did.

“If they had floated the other way it would’ve been a whole different story,” he said.

“They even said a lot of boats went past them and they were yelling out and screaming out, waving their arms around but no one saw them.”

The Benussis stayed anchored for the night due to the low tides and patchy reception.

On the journey home the next morning, Benussi finally got bars on his mobile. He texted his nephew in Blackwater who rang the water police and ambulance service.

When the paramedics arrived at the Rosslyn Bay marina on Tuesday morning, Benussi said the couple were taken out of the boat on stretchers.

A spokesperson at the Queensland Ambulance Service said “two patients were transported to Capricorn Coast hospital in a stable condition” after being found in the ocean where they were “reportedly adrift for three days”.

Benussi said the pair were fortunate to be alive after floating through shark-infested waters and losing their paddleboards before they were rescued.

“We’ve had a few close friends that have perished at sea out here. So they’re very fortunate they were able to hang on to the board for as long as they did,” he said.

“They wouldn’t have been able to tread water for much longer.”

Balkin added: “If you were just floating in the water with no life jacket or nothing on and you make it more than 36 hours, you got to buy some lotto tickets.”