A Lithuanian rower has been rescued off the Queensland coast after he was caught in a tropical cyclone’s 130km/h winds and monster waves.
Aurimas Mockus ran into trouble about 740km east of Mackay while attempting a 12,000km Pacific Ocean crossing from San Diego to Brisbane in his solo rowing boat.
HMAS Choules, a 16,000-tonne Royal Australian Navy landing ship, rescued Mockus on Monday morning.
He is on his way back to Australian shores after a two-day wait in the turbulent ocean waters due to Tropical Cyclone Alfred, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said.
Mockus set off on the journey in October and was days away from reaching his final destination after rowing about 70 nautical miles a day.
He was bracing for the “maximum power” of the cyclone on Thursday, saying he just needed to survive the next two days.
But the waves proved too much when Cyclone Alfred began intensifying in the warm Coral Sea waters to a category two system with constant 95km/h winds and gust of up to 130km/h.
The system caused swell to grow into monster multiple metre-high waves, sparking Mockus to activate his emergency beacon late on Friday.
A search and rescue mission began with a Cairns-based Challenger jet failing to spot Mockus on Saturday but it did make contact with the tired rower.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority communicated with the adventurer via the rescue aircraft through an interpreter on Sunday.
The agency said Mockus had not reported any major injuries.
Mockus was attempting to join a short list of ocean rowers to make the Pacific crossing solo without stopping.
Brit Peter Bird was the first in 1983, followed by countryman John Beeden in 2015 and Australian Michelle Lee in 2023.
Fellow Australian Tom Robinson, who was attempting to become the youngest to accomplish the feat albeit with a break in the Cook Islands, spent 265 days at sea before he was rescued off Vanuatu in 2023.
The 24-year-old Queenslander’s rowboat capsized, leaving him clinging naked to the hull for about 14 hours before he was rescued by a cruise ship that made a 200km detour.
