Canadian sailor rescued by Australian Navy in dramatic Indian Ocean operation

A dramatic rescue in the remote Indian Ocean has saved the life of 70-year-old Canadian sailor James 'Ted' Rutledge, who was forced to abandon ship after his catamaran began taking on water in the middle of the night.

Mr Rutledge was roughly 1,000 kilometres from land, south-east of Christmas Island and north of Western Australia, when his alarm system sounded and he discovered floorboards were lifting as water flooded in through the half-metre-wide escape hatch.

A sudden crisis at sea

The hatch, which had been retrofitted after a 2020 safety recall on the French-made Lagoon 42, appeared to have detached on its own. It took just 10 minutes for Mr Rutledge to realise his boat would sink.

“The more water that came through, the more water was going to come through, because the [window] sill just kept getting lower [in the water],” Mr Rutledge said.

“By the time I got out of there, everything was floating — cushions, toys, stuffed animals, clothes and baskets and things like that.”

“I knew it was over. I knew I had to abandon ship.”

A desperate fight for survival

Mr Rutledge's inflatable life raft was submerged and not usable, and a second life-saving plan had to be formulated as he scrambled to escape in a dinghy that was kept suspended between the parallel hulls.

However, the dinghy too had become stuck and Mr Rutledge had to cut it loose with a knife, but in doing so his hand became clamped in part of the boat.

“I remember saying: ‘This is not the night I’m going to die,’” he said.

“I was born off an island and my first breath was sea air. I didn’t want my last breath to be sea water.”

A wave eventually forced his hand free, and he was able to cast off in the dinghy.

A rescue mission unfolds

As Mr Rutledge faced a period of being truly alone, his brother Kelly Thomas in Canada raised the alarm after a concerned friend was unable to contact him.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority tracked Mr Rutledge down after receiving the emergency call, and a rescue jet was launched.

AMSA Principal Advisor on Search and Rescue Hemi Manaena said there were multiple challenges.

“It’s a very remote part of the Indian Ocean, of the Timor Sea particularly,” Mr Manaena said.

“The last known position that we were provided was about 1,000km east of Christmas Island and 1,000km from the Australian mainland.”

The rescue jet sighted Mr Rutledge on his dinghy just a couple of hours later, and he was dropped a life raft containing an emergency beacon, radio, food and water.

He was rescued by the HMAS Supply, which was sailing in the area, after 15 hours floating at sea.

Commander Kylie Turnbull said Mr Rutledge was “very quiet” when he arrived on deck without his pants, which he had lost during the ordeal.

“Our aircraft flew 155 miles back to that position and then conducted the winch rescue, returning back to supply, landing on our deck. And we received him here on board here in the hangar,” Commander Turnbull said.

A new chapter for Mr Rutledge

Mr Rutledge has now headed to South Africa, which was his destination when disaster struck on a trip that had seen him sail approximately 3,000 nautical miles and visit 33 countries.

While he says he has no regrets, having safely navigated around cyclones in Fiji and waterspouts in Tahiti, he says the safety incident that left his life in danger is a warning to others to make sure every aspect of their boat is safe.

“It wasn’t something that I did wrong,” he said.

“I didn’t misnavigate. I didn’t run into a shoal or another boat. It was just that those windows weren’t built well enough to stay in.”