As rescue choppers circled in the dark above Port Phillip Bay, four teenagers adrift and clinging to their inflatable paddleboards waved and screamed to attract their attention – to no avail.
But they didn’t panic. Despite being inexperienced swimmers and without life jackets, they remained calm. Working together, they survived an ordeal in which they drifted through the night, blown more than 20 kilometres clear across bay.
Rong Shi said it was “some miracle” that the four friends survived their ordealCredit:ABC
Rong Shi, 18, said it was surreal that they had survived.
“It still feels like a dream to me to that we’ve made it. I mean like if you look back, it’s really some miracle,” he told the ABC.
“We were trying to get help because we knew that we couldn’t get back, so we just started calling passing boats – but no one noticed us.”
As evening descended on Port Phillip Bay on Monday, the four excited school-leavers were celebrating their VCE results on a pair of stand-up paddleboards in the water off Rosebud Beach on the Mornington Peninsula.
But they didn’t reckon with the strong easterly winds and bay currents. They “couldn’t fight” against them.
They were blown out into the pitch darkness of the bay. Drifting through the shipping lanes and with their phones left back on the beach, there was no way to raise the alarm.
For nine hours they floated, through the night, to Swan Island, a small military training site off the coast of Queenscliff on the Bellarine Peninsula.
There, about 2am, cold and disorientated, they managed to scrabble their way to an empty hut where they hunkered down for the night.
Two teenagers arrived at Geelong hospital in an ambulance after their rescue.Credit:Julian Smith
As the sun rose, the ordeal finally came to an end when military security found them wandering on the island.
Rong’s father Jack Shi said the news of their rescue came as a “huge relief”.
“We were very much worried, they’re not good swimmers, they can swim but do not have the skills to swim in the bay,” he said.
“They wanted to get some fun, but they did not manage the risk. I think it’s a good lesson for him, maybe too risky.”
Jack Shi speaks with police at Rosebud during the search for the teenagers.Credit:Nine News
One police officer described it as a “Christmas-time miracle.”
Acting Superintendent Terence Rowlands said the “lucky” teenagers were “very cold and relieved to be on dry land”. He said stories like this often ended in tragedy.
“I think they’re really heroes to get through this,” Shi later told ABC radio in Melbourne.
“They tried to try to reach the island but you know … the wave just pushed them back,” he said.
Shi and Minghao Li, also 18, were taken to University Hospital Geelong by air ambulance. An 18-year-old woman and a 19-year-old woman arrived by ambulance, walking into the emergency department on Tuesday morning wrapped in sheets.
Shi said, “They gave us blankets and food and water, and hot tea … that’s what I was dreaming about yesterday.”
Jack Shi said his son, who is also known as Jackson, was treated for dehydration and that he and his friends were doing well.
“He is looking very well and his friends are all looking very well. The doctors doing some, you know, blood tests, and some health checks,” he said.
Family members arriving at Geelong Hospital to be reunited with their children.Credit:Justin McManus
Joseph Hong, a family friend of Rong’s who visited the teens in hospital on Tuesday, said the group had stayed calm during their ordeal.
At least one of the teens had used a paddleboard before, he said.
“They said they weren’t fearful at all, they weren’t scared. They were waiting for the tide to bring them back in,” Hong said
“They were just stay[ing] together, teamwork and just really encourage each other and think about what they need to do to get help.”
“They could see the land they just wait[ed] for the right time.
The drama began when a passerby found belongings including mobile phones, IDs and other personal items on Rosebud Beach about 8pm on Monday.
Helicopters, water police and local rescue boats were involved in the search.
“They were waving and they were like screaming out as well,” Hong said.
After poor conditions halted the search at 4am, emergency services resumed looking for the group at daybreak on Tuesday.
A paddleboard in the waters of Port Phillip Bay, where four teenagers were rescued.Credit:Nine News
Bureau of Meteorology’s Ilana Cherny said there were windy conditions in Rosebud on Monday night.
“We had southeasterly to easterly winds from most parts of the bay that were generally between 20 to 30km/h,” she said.
She said there was an increase in windy conditions about 4am, when the search was paused.
Mark Thomas, secretary of Stand Up Paddle-boarding Victoria, a not-for-profit club, said more people were trying the sport as cheaper inflatable boards hit the market.
He said novice boarders didn’t fully understand the risk of being carried off course by the wind.
“It was an easterly wind blowing directly offshore – there’s no way those kids are going to be paddling against that. It’s lucky they didn’t go up through the heads,” Thomas said.
Thomas said they were fortunate not to be hit by a ship.
“To get to Swan Island… crossed the shipping lane. If a dirty great big container ship is pumping along doing 30-odd kilometres in the bay, they’ve got no chance of seeing them and they are so much faster than they look from the shore,” he said.
“If those four kids were in the wrong place at the wrong time they could have been hit.”
Stacy Rowe, who runs a stand-up paddleboard school and hire in Elwood in Melbourne’s south-east, said beginners often underestimated how easy it was to get in trouble on the water.
A paddleboarder acts like a sail while standing on their board. If winds pick up, they could quickly be carried away.
“If they’re not cognisant of the fact that the wind will push them around, they’ll be on their way to Geelong pretty quickly,” Rowe said.
“It might be a beautiful day, but you’ve still got to keep a very firm eye on where you are in relation to the beach and what’s happening around you.”
Safety Transport Victoria (STV) said there had been 17 reported incidents relating to stand-up paddleboards in the 2021-22 financial year, but no fatalities.
”We urge paddlers to always wear a lifejacket and to tie themselves to the board with a leg leash in case they fall off,” STV maritime safety director Cameron Toy said.
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2022-12-20 08:52:45Z
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