Real Survival Stories - Typhoon in the Lagoon

Episode Date: November 27, 2025

Tom Booth has travelled far from his native England in search of dazzling tropical beauty. In 2015, he’s working as a cruise director onboard a yacht in Micronesia, guiding divers down to spectacular naval ruins at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. But when a typhoon blows in, he and his crewmates are suddenly vulnerable to the devastating power of nature. And when the captain becomes incapacitated, it falls on Tom to step up…   A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins.   Written by Edward White | Produced by Ed Baranski | Assistant Producer: Luke Lonergan | Exec produced by Joel Duddell | Sound supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Matt Peaty | Assembly edit by Rob Plummer and Anisha Deva | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Ralph Tittley.   For ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Click the subscription banner at the top of the feed to get started. Or go to noiser.com/subscriptions   If you have an amazing survival story of your own that you’d like to put forward for the show, let us know. Drop us an email at [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's afternoon on March 29th, 2015, in the Central Pacific Ocean. On any normal day, the atoll known as the Chuk Lagoon is a glorious sight, a collection of small, beautiful islands, blessed with lush, verdant plant life and golden beaches, all surrounded by vivid blue skies and sparkling seas that stretch further than the eye can see. Today, however, Chuk Lagoon is the scene of diabolical chaos. A storm is raging, typhoon Mesaq. Out at sea, vessels of all description are being thrown around by screaming 100-mile-per-hour winds. Rain pounds down as though in solid blocks.

Aboard one of those vessels, clinging onto a steel railing with all his might, is Tom Booth. 28-year-old cruise director of a tourist yacht. An expert diver Tom is used to life out on the ocean, but he's never known anything like this. I'd experienced rough weather at sea, but nothing compared to what we experience in the truck. The strength of the wind and being soaking where it is chilling, and I was knackered, I was exhausted. Carreaning around the lagoon, the yacht is battered by the elements.

Great waves wash over the deck, smashing through windows and doors. And then, from the depths of the hull, an ungodly noise rises, as the propeller grinds into a giant mass of coral hidden beneath the waves. The yacht judders and lurches alarmingly to one side. Teetering almost horizontally over the sea, Tom loses his footing, collides with a table, and sees four crewmates into the water for those left on board it's a horrifying sight but there's nothing they can do they can't go in after them they just have to try to stay alive themselves I was concerned but they then felt outside of the environment if that makes sense there were still crew members on board you are

absolutely terrified the yachts crunches and clatters over the reef sharp underwater tendrils gnaw into the belly of the boat. All the while, the brutal wind pulls relentlessly on the vessel's hardware. Soon, the giant steel cables that tether the mast of the deck are ripped from their fixings. Tom watches in horror as one of the flailing cables whips the yacht captain around the head, knocking him to the floor. The captain doesn't move. An awful situation has become even more.

grave. Here they are, on the open sea, assailed by a typhoon from above and coral reef from below. The yacht is falling to pieces, and the captain is lying lifeless on the deck. I remember seeing it happening and he just went out, cold, he hit the deck, face down. The water running across the deck, he was about two, three feet deep and, yeah, face down in the water. the boat was still moving violently. I didn't know if he was dead. I was scared. people suddenly forced to fight for their lives. In this episode, we meet Tom Booth, a young man who roams far from his native England to discover dazzling tropical beauty, above sea and below.

In 2015, Tom is working as a cruise director on board a yacht in Micronesia, guiding divers down to spectacular naval ruins at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. But when a typhoon blows in, he and his crewmates become very much. vulnerable to the devastating power of nature. Their vessel is never far from land. At times they're close enough to jump ship and paddle to the shore, in theory at least. But the typhoon flips their world upside down,

trapping them in constant peril. This fearsome storm looks certain to condemn every last one of them to the bottom of the ocean. We didn't expect a full-blown typhoon. The waves, the sudden onsulate of the wind, and the rain is a complete disappearance of visibility. At that point, I think all control was lost to the vessel. Threats comes from all angles, from the swirling tempest, from the malfunctioning yacht,

and even later from other people. With the captain incapacitated, Tom is going to have to step up to help himself and his crew. Earlier, when I was completely out control, the only person who could help us was the captain. I was just stood as a passenger. But at that point, there were things to do. There were people to help. I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is real survival stories.

It's 9 a.m. on March the 28th, 2015. A beautiful day on the Pacific island of Wino. Part of the Chuk Lagoon, an atoll within the federated states of Micronesia, we know this morning is the image of a tropical paradise. The shining sun dazzles in a clear, cobalt blue sky. The mountains are thick with verdant vegetation. The lagoon water is an inviting turquoise. At the port, the day is well underway. On the deck of a tourist yacht, Tom Booth sits at his laptop, busying himself with admin before the next party of guests arrive. As a cruise director and diving expedition leader, he's seen some of the world's most stunning locations. But for Tom, Chuk Lagoon, or Truck Lagoon, as some refer to it, has a particular allure.

Truk is a diver's dream destination. Basically, there's a tropical lagoon in dive-thal depths with a huge amount of wartime wrecks. Ships are still full of tanks. Then the holes is airplanes, ammunition, beach mines, and the vessels themselves have got really interesting history. So, yeah, if you're interested in wrecks, then Trupp Lagoon is probably the premier destination in the world.

It's all a very long way from home. Growing up in Northern England, Tom was more accustomed to industrial cities and slate grey skies than coral reef and swaying palm trees. I grew up in West Yorkshire. My interest as a diver started when I was about 15 by my dad. He was a qualified diver took me diving in a river in North Yorkshire. It was fantastic. After earning qualifications in canoeing, climbing and mountaineering, Tom found himself looking

for adventure. Just a wonder lust, really. I left college, so I did a two-year qualification in outdoor leadership and then left without a job and immediately found myself working in a foundry where we're rolling nickel alloys, which was great, it was a good laugh. But seeing my colleagues who were nearing retirement, counting down the days with bad backs, didn't make me want to wish the next 30 years to disappear. At first Tom went to France where he taught canoeing. Next, he headed much further east to Thailand, where he could pursue another passion. I was a martial artist, so I moved to Thailand in 2009.

I was doing some training and some competing out there and needed a way to make money. So I borrowed some cash and did a professional dive instructor's qualification and started teaching diving in Thailand in Pouquet. Skip forward five years and Tom returned to the UK, still diving yet this time for aquaculture projects, in an environment that could barely be further from the sun-kissed shores of the Pacific. In the winter of 2014, I was being lifted out of a salmon pen covered in the remains of dead fish with snow blowing into my face, my fingers cold, and when I got back to my digs at night, there was an email from my old employee asking me to help to set up. up the region in Truck Lagoon. So I jumped at the opportunity. Thoughts going back to the tropics

and not being in freezing blizzards in north of Scotland was very appealing. So I packed my bags and yeah, set off to truck. Today, on this March morning in 2015, the Chuk Lagoon is at its beautiful best. As Tom checks his emails on the deck of the yacht, the rest of the crew busy themselves elsewhere on the vessel. In total, there are 14 staff on board, mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia. In addition to Tom, there are housekeeping staff, a chef, an engineer, and Deng, the ship's captain, a native of Indonesia and a vastly experienced sailor in these waters. Today is a changeover day, a chance to do paperwork, restock supplies, perform maintenance,

prepare the yacht for the next batch of guests, and gossip about the ones who are just departed. Spirits among the crew are high. Life is good. Just a very relaxed trip. The crew were happy, the guests had left happy. There was no major maintenance work to do, so it was a really nice changeover day. We'd gone into the port itself, so crew were free to leave and get back on the vessel and do the shopping and things like that. And yeah, I was just steadily do my counts and relax in. Preparation for the new arrivals is well underway when a crew member from a nearby yacht relay some news. An almighty storm has been forecasted in the area for the following day.

No question this is a serious development, but Tom isn't prone to panic. As I recall, we were told as a tropical depression in which I understood meant bad weather. I don't think it was common for typhoons to develop. specifically where we were. I've been involved in some heavy weather events in the Maldives. We ran a diving region there and the company kept us going right through the southwest monsoons. I've experienced bad weather before and wasn't terrified. Others are less sanguine. Tom looks on as the yachts engineer takes it upon himself to secure objects that aren't bolted to the deck floor. That afternoon,

Captain Deng repositions the vessel to a spot that he thinks will offer better protection for the forecasted storm. As he heads to his bunk on the yacht later that evening, Tom's mood remains good. In-clement weather is all part of the job. In fact, a gathering storm just makes things more interesting. I like excitement. There is danger there, so it does sharpen the senses. And thought of being in a weather event did excite me. This November on the Noisor Podcast Network. On short history of, we'll step beyond the Leonine Wall and into Vatican City, the smallest sovereign state in the world.

We'll follow the extraordinary life of Irish writer Oscar Wilde and crack befuddling cases with the Pinkerton Detective Agency. On real survival stories, we'll find ourselves marooned on a wild, remote fjord in British Columbia, Witness a terrifying lightning strike atop a Wyoming mountain And watch on as a fearsome typhoon devastates a Pacific lagoon In Jane Austen's stories, pride and prejudice continues With a free-spirited Lizzie attending a dinner party at the grand estate of Lady Catherine And not exactly making a favourable impression

And in Sherlock Holmes short stories, A Professor returns from Prague with a mysterious carved box And a strangely changed personality in The Adventure of the Creeping Man. Get all these shows and more early and ad-free on Noyser Plus. Hi listeners. If you have an amazing survival story of your own that you'd like to put forward for the show, let us know.

Drop us an email at support at noyser.com. That's support at noyser.com. Morning arrives. As usual, Tom is up early. Ordinarily, he likes to take advantage of the quiet to prep for the day ahead before crew and guest surface. Not today. From his cabin he can hear activity above. The main engine is already running, rain is falling, and the wind is now blowing hard. The yacht is fairly still.

With so many vessels sheltering in the port, there's not enough open water. not enough open water to allow large waves to form. But the strength of the wind is undeniable. As Tom clambers above deck, he looks up and sees the gusts pushing and pulling the mass of rigging the towers overhead. In the morning, yeah, it was a hive activity and people were on edge and the boat was rocking. There was already strong winds. We were anchored behind a protective reef. So the island of Wenow, which is the biggest island in the lagoon, offered the best protection. So our vessel, plus, I believe another six vessels, were anchored in the same location

to get that protection from those northeasterly winds that we were experiencing. The deck is all movement, all action. The nervy crew buzz around. Tom and his yacht mates set about securing and reinforcing whatever they can, but especially everything that's attached to the huge canvas-topped canopy that hovers over the rear of the vessel. As morning progresses, the wind only gets stronger. The yacht begins to hobby horse, pitching forward and backwards like a seesaw. The bow dips in and out of the water.

Under the strain of the increasingly hostile conditions, little by little, the anchor is dragged from its spot on the seafloor. The yacht is visibly moving. The captain makes a decisive call. He announces he is going to raise the anchor, move to a more sheltered spot and drop anchor again. Drenched to the bone in the unrelenting downpour, Tom scurries to the prow to help raise the anchor. Captain Dang now relocates the yacht, guiding it through the bouncing, frothing swell before settling on a new spot. Fingers crossed, the anchor will wedge itself in more tightly in this new location. Tom now takes the opportunity to swap his sodden shorts and t-shirt for something more weather appropriate, a wetsuit.

It was bad weather, it was low visibility, there was rain and the wind was gaining strength. I'd have to estimate, but I'd say around 50 knots of wind in gusts. 50 knots equates to roughly 60 miles per hour, a strong gale force wind. Despite this, Tom remains his usual composed self. But with the gift of hindsight, the worsening conditions should have been the signal for most of those on board to get as far away as possible. A hundred percent, I'd think if I was to be faced with a similar situation again, we'd have got the non-essential personnel off the vessel. It was an ordeal they didn't need to go through and probably myself included didn't need to be on that vessel that day. The four ships crew, the Deccans, the captain, the engineer would have been adequate, but naively the whole crew stayed on the vessel.

But then, quite suddenly, it seems as though the storm might be passing them by. As though mechanically powered, the wind and rain stopped dead. The tempest that just seconds earlier was fermenting all around them disappears without a trace. It was serene actually. All of a sudden the wind stopped and the water was glass calm. I think I was a little bit disappointed. I thought that was the worst of it. I was expecting something a bit more than that. But there was relief as well. It was back to life. You know, the flight will be reschedules. We'll get the guests in early and they'll have a good holiday. Miraculously, the Chuk Lagoon has been spared. Or so it seems.

In the unexpected quiet, the ship's mobile phone chirps into life. On the other end of the line is a crew member from a neighboring yacht. It's bad news. There weather information tells them something deeply unnerving. The danger hasn't passed them by. In fact, they are all slap bang in the eye of the storm. The bad weather is circling them, like a predator circling prey. pretty soon it'll be coming back with a vengeance from the opposite direction.

He saw that there was actually a typhoon developing there and then, and we were pretty much in the eye of the storm, and his instructions were the wind's going to change 180 degrees and come a lot stronger. Despite his wealth of experience, this is a first for Tom. He's never encountered a typhoon before. A type of storm characterized by its powerful swirling wind, and torrential rain, a typhoon, as it's called in the Pacific region, is essentially the same thing that is known in other parts of the world as a hurricane. Tom and the crew are now in the path of Typhoon Mesaq. And being in the path of one of these beasts while at sea is about as dangerous as it gets. Plus, if the gales are going to come back from a different direction, it means the

spot they've just moved to is no longer a safe haven. They need to take a advantage of this lull and move as quickly as possible to somewhere else that offers greater protection. So at that point, it was a mad scramble. We got out on deck. The intention was to raise the anchors, turn around 180 degrees, and move behind the island that's opposite went open, which would then give us protection from a southwestly. It was serious again, and we needed to act. The anchor is lifted again. With the motor roaring, Captain Deng pushes the yacht across the lagoon. It's a race against time to beat Typhoon Masak as it swirls back around.

But it's a race that can't be won. Looking out of the bow, we could see the island and then it disappeared. Anybody's familiar with a squall. It's like a wall of rain that comes in. And I've seen them before, but this was very dramatic. It crossed the island. The trees disappeared, the beach disappeared. And then very quickly, the few kilometers of ocean ahead of us,

started disappearing as well until all of a sudden that wall of rain and wind hit straight on the bow and the ship juddered it was a shock in the blink of an eye the yacht and its crew are plunged into the frenzy of the typhoon sea mist and thick rain close it all around until they consume the vessel rendering visibility next to zero there are islands all around them land is almost cruelly close but nothing can be spied in the darkness of the storm the surface of the sea pulses and heaves and the immense gales toy with the yacht forcing it to tip and spin urgently a crew member grabs life jackets and hands them out despite the filthy conditions tom is reluctant to take one i did take the life jacket but at first i thought it was more of a hindrance than an aid i'm

very comfortable in the water. I'm a good swimmer, but he certainly did the right thing. I was very naive. The threat of capsizing or falling overboard has become very real. At one point, the tiniest chink appears in the wall of grey. Tom squints through the gap. The sight confronting him is not at all welcome. We had our nose into the wind. We're still heading towards what we hoped was protection of the island, but we had no visibility. sudden the visibility opened up and directly ahead of us was another vessel. The captain saw it and had to go hard over starboard and immediately we felt that wind smash into the boat and really keel us over. There were six other moored vessels and it was

blind man's buff where everyone had blindfold on. It's afternoon on March the 29th, 2015, and a typhoon is causing havoc in Chuk Lagoon in the Pacific Ocean. On board a tourist yacht, Tom Booth watches in horror as his vessel veers perilously close to another ship, also struggling in the watery chaos. Tom's captain turns the wheel hard. Unable to properly see the nearby boat, he is really relying on years of honed instinct to avoid a potentially fatal accident. The yacht turns sharply starboard. A wave crashes down on the deck. Several of Tom's colleagues, the housekeeping staff, are literally swept off their feet.

Bodies slide across the deck. Screams of panic dissipate into the cacophony of the storm. I was holding on to a steel support from the rear canopy and a crew member medley got washed off her feet to grab her by her life jacket and pull her in and get her to hold onto the support as well. Captain Deng has successfully averted a collision with the other boat. But this has created a different problem. In order to prevent the crash, the captain has had to change the direction of the yacht. Instead of facing directly into the storm, the craft now has the wind pummeling it from the side. Water continues to pour in, flooding the spaces

below deck it's imperative to turn the yacht's bow back into the wind to face it head on and regain some semblance of balance the captain steers hard and pushes the throttle to its limit thick black smoke bellows yet no matter how hard he tries he cannot get the boat to turn tom looks around hoping to find some way of helping on the starboard side he notices that one of the skiffs, a small auxiliary vessel that is attached by a rope to the side of the yacht, has been flipped right over in the wind. It's now dragging in the water behind the yacht, like a ball and chain, preventing them from moving freely. I could see out behind us, and the waves had actually capsized that vessel, and it was just a big sea anchor. So I'd

actually put a wet seat on earlier in the day, and in the pocket I keep a dive knife, So I pulled that dive knife out. I remember quite clearly, I just touched, felt like touched my knife to this rope and the tension in the line, it just parted and snapped with quite an incredible force. And as soon as that went, we felt the vessel turning and captain managed to get the bow back into the waves. Disaster has been averted. Facing the right way once more, the yacht has a fighting chance against the pitiless wind. Though it doesn't feel like it, Captain Deng's heroics at the wheel can't prevent the craft from being tossed and battered on the sea. In the adrenalized mayhem, with hardly any visibility and no reference points beyond the boat, it's impossible to tell how much time is passing. But at some point, Tom experiences something deeply unusual, an incongruous reminder of his time as a competitive martial artist.

I fought in front of large crowds of people and my knees shake, I don't know if it's nerves or fear, but as we're being smashed through this way, the bow of the vessels back into the waves, and I'm hanging on on this steel upright, and at that point my knees were doing their knocking trick. Naturally enough, it's not just Tom who's feeling scared. There was a cry next to me, and the chef was a devout Christian, I found out, and he dropped to his knees and started like an evangelical preacher screaming out. Jesus, I come to you in heaven and all sorts of things and looking over it and seeing the fear and his face actually straightened me out and I got my senses back again at that point. The frenzy continues on and on.

After a while the toll on the yacht begins to show. On board are three electric generators vital to power specialist kit like dive compressors as well as basic necessities such as lighting and there are electric lights studied all the way around the steel frame of the large canopy at the back of the vessel the one that's covered by a canvas awning and which offers the crew at least some protection from the elements as the yacht bucks on the waves tom reaches out a hand to steady himself his palm grabs at his steel frame of the canopy and he receives a sharp painful jolk He yelps and pulls away.

Not an inch of this boat is free from danger. Some of these electrical cables must have parted slightly. I'm not electrician, but there was electricity going through this steel frame. Every time I touched certain parts of it, I was getting electric shocks. I'd stagger into something, took my hand out to steady myself, and then recoil once I got an electric jolt. And in the storm, there's no way. of telling whether the yacht is charging across the lagoon or floating in place at a certain

point the outside world reappears once again tom catches sight of another vessel a hulking monster this time a large fishing ship weighed down at anchor with the fate of everybody on board in his hands the captain does what he can the only evasive action the captain could take was slam the vessel into reverse to this day i don't know if we hit that vessel that obviously visible it was on and off, and the violent of the wind, I didn't know if there was a collision or not. There's a series of violent bumps and bounces, but the yacht remains the right way up on the waves. Though no sooner is that obstacle navigated than another crops up. Foaming white surf, breaking only two boat lengths away, unmistakable evidence of coral reef.

The captain leans into the wheel once more. He guides the yacht around the hazard that threatens to damage the hull. But the wind is so strong, it shoves the vessel off course. As the gales thump the starboard side of the yacht, Captain Deng struggles to maintain control. A deluge of water hits the deck now, taking down doors and windows. As Tom grips the nearest available surface, the bottom of the yacht clatters into the reef. At that point, above the judders and the shudders from the wind, there was another bump pin scraping noise. I seem to remember the propeller sort of bouncing along scraping on the coral reef. So as we hit that, we're against the movable object on the seabed and the wind still

forcing us from starboard and the ship started really keeling over. Caught between the reef and the wind, the boat lists ever further on its side. Eventually it rocks its way over the obstacle and smacks back down onto the water. Tom clings to a table. but keeps him out of the deep. Others aren't so fortunate. Four crew members went overboard. I'm not sure why. I don't know if they jumped or someone fell

and others went to save them, but they went over. Stund, Tom, attempts to deploy a life raft. Yet, in the conditions, it proves impossible. There's a mechanism to set off the inflatable life raft. I pulled that and before it'd even inflated the strength of the wind had caught it, And it was like a kite. It ripped the rope straight out of my hand. And this life raft just snapped its tether and we've never seen again.

Four crewmates have disappeared into the sea. And there's now no way to bring them back. But from Tom's perspective, there's too much at stake to dwell on this now. I was concerned, but there were still crew members on board, one of which was a non-swimmer. Captain Deng, he saw the members go overboard and there his crew, so that obviously had an effect on him. But they then felt outside of the environment, if that makes sense.

They were out of the situation then, as far as I was concerned. In no time, the yacht crunches into the reef again, and the vessel is stuck in place once more, rocking violently. Prone on the coral, Typhoon Masek does its worst. And now another concern takes shape. What might happen should the wind get beneath the large, canvas stretched across the back of the yacht. Suddenly the crew find out. The fear of wind getting underneath this canopy and ripping the whole thing off was real. And as the wind pushes

against the reef and the boat listed over, eventually it did. It was like an umbrella in a very strong wind. Rips this canopy and the handrail that was attached to it off the stern of the vessel. I was amazed that it hadn't struck anyone and, yeah, it just killed someone immediately if that had hit them or seriously injured them. Canopy flies off, leaving the remaining crew with no protection. Several hundred kilos worth of metal scatters across the sea. This includes the fixings for the stays, the thick metal cables that run from mast to deck. Now, as the yacht rocks this way and that up against the reef, the stays flail in the wind, whipping with ferocity across the deck.

At the helm, Captain Deng is in imminent danger of serious injury. He tries to scurry to safety, but slips on the sodden floor. As he rises, a stay hits him full in the face. He's knocked instantly unconscious. Tom tries to reach him. He crawls on his belly to where the skipper is lying, face down, in a deep pool of water. I remember seeing it happening and he just went out cold and all I could do for him that time was turn him over

so at least his nose and his mouth were underwater dragged his slim body down three stairs down to the port side where we're offered a little bit of protection out of reach of the steel cables Without a captain the yacht and all its crew are entirely at the mercy of Mother Nature Rather than sit and await

his fate, Tom tries whatever he can to try to keep some sense of control. In a strange way, the desperation of the situation helps them to focus. I was scared, but I don't remember the fear of death. I think earlier when I had my moment of knocking knees was probably the most scared of being all day. But at that point, there were things to do, there were people to help. The most immediate need of everyone on board is to escape the reach of the swinging steel cables. as well as the wind and the water that is still swamping the deck.

Options for a possible safe haven are limited. On the port side of the yacht is a small shower room. It's certainly not designed to accommodate ten people, but in present circumstances it will have to do. I identified that as a place of relative safety, so left the captain in there, wedged against a toilet, crawl back up onto the stern of the vettel, and encourage the rest of the crew to come down.

I got the engineer to hold the captain's head in his hands and keep his face out of the war. With the crew now huddled together, Tom darts around the yacht, looking for something, anything to do that might prove useful. I'm a lot calmer when there's something to do. And making myself busy was good for me. Got a handheld radio and naively put out on May Day, not knowing that the whole of the island had just been devastated by a typhoon, so there was no one going to answer that.

I set off a flare just to make myself busy. but didn't really expect anyone to go help us. After several hours, the wind begins to drop. Though still drumming down, the rain also eases a little. Just enough to afford Tom a glimpse of something in the distance. Mercifully, it's not another vessel steaming into them. It's a cluster of mangroves. a sure sign that the yacht is close to ashore.

Salvation is near, and yet still tantalizingly far away. Through the rain, it's impossible to judge the exact distance to the mangroves. Perhaps he could dive into the water and swim to them. But that would mean leaving others behind. The captain is incapacitated and several crew members can't swim. After a while, Tom notices movement among the mangroves. For a moment his heart soars, a rescue party is on its way. That's how it looks, at least, until the long, lethal blades of their machetes come into focus.

People started coming out of the mangroves, and I immediately thought they were coming to help us. And then there were these whoops. They were very happy about something, and very quickly I realized that they weren't coming to help us. They'd struck gold. These are not rescuers. They're looters. After hours battling the elements, a new danger is bolting from the bushes. I don't know if it's the law in that region. It's certainly custom that anything that lands on the bit of reef that you own belongs to you.

And yeah, whoever on that bit of reef just received a million and a half dollars worth of yacht. So I think they were quite pleased and then they made the way out to the ship. Tom races beneath deck, grabbing essentials that he needs to protect, his logbook, the crew's passports, and the contents of the safe. As he returns to the deck, he sees the looters wading through the water, gathering around a rope ladder hanging from the side of the boat. One of the looters begins to climb. With adrenaline coursing through him, Tom attempts to ward them off, screaming at the top of his voice. The looters hesitate. but only for a moment.

It was completely futile. We were in a sorry state, and there were loads of them, and no interest in having a fight. There was no point in endangering people trying to protect something that essentially wasn't ours. Tom beckons the others to join him. One by one, the crew nervously descend the rope ladder.

The atmosphere is febrile, but the looters let them pass. I don't think they really had any violent intentions towards us. They just wanted the boat and yeah, I did not want the boat. So we climbed down, we had to half carry Captain Dan because he was in a really poor state. He had regained consciousness but he wasn't coherent. Groggy and unsteady on his feet, Captain Deng leans on his crew members for support. Ahead of them now is a kilometre long trudge along the coral reef.

the water laps at their chests. Progress is slow, slippery, often painful. They wade through the lapping waves over rocks and sharp coral. Eventually, they make it to the mangroves and on to Wino Island. Once ashore, they're greeted by locals, not looters this time, but kindly people who, despite having endured the ferocity of the typhoon themselves, are eager to help this band of lost souls emerging from the sea. To Tom's relief, some of the people speak English. They offer to guide the survivors through the jungle to a local tourist resort. The next leg of the journey to safety begins. The effects of Typhoon Mesak are all around them. Broken trees and homes reduced to nothing.

Five people have lost their lives on these islands. Thousands have been made homeless and crops have been ruined. Rarely has the Chuk Lagoon experienced such destructive weather. We had no idea where we were on the island, but as we stepped ashore and sort of made our way through the mangroves, it became really clear what the typhoon had done to the island. There was trees, substantial, strong tropical trees which had been blown over. There was a group of guys there who were local,

who spoke English and those guys they actually took us back to the path and started taking us to one of the resorts on the island. There's trees blown across the road. One of the guys had machete had to cut a path at one point for us to get through. Our sort of bedraggled remains of the crew made our way back towards safety. It's evening by the time they reached the resort. astonishingly among the holiday makers are some familiar faces our colleagues who'd been washed overboard earlier were there waiting for us they were a bit scraped up they've been washed over the coral that cuts their legs and feet

but yeah mostly unharmed every last member of the crew is here soaked bruised and battered yet somehow safe and sound only now does the reality of what they've all been through begin to sink in Tears come quickly as crew members embrace one another. We hooked our colleagues, two crew members, absolute in hysterics, they broke down, I think they'd been holding it together really well all day. In the immediate aftermath, Tom stays at the resort, recuperating physically and emotionally. The guests from the previous trip were actually being housed there as well, their flight had been cancelled. They bought all the crew, dry clothes from the gift shop.

We all had matching, sign written, t-shirts and stuff. In fact, almost everything Tom owns has been lost, looted or ruined. Yet, over the next couple of days, the atmosphere among the crewmates is not one of loss, but rather of relief and celebration. It was actually party time. We were elated. We were chuffed. We'd survived.

We'd been through a real adventure together, and then we had a two-day party afterwards. A few days later, Tom takes a boat out to the wreck. He surveys the damage, not only from the typhoon, but from the looters as well. Whatever has not been claimed by wind or water, the looters have destroyed or taken. The drinks cabinet has been drained dry. Even the toilet pans have been stripped out. But Tom doesn't actually hold any bitterness towards the perpetrators. I mean, we were robbed, but the people who did it had their whole lives wrecked.

There was a few concrete buildings on the island, but the majority were corrugated iron houses, and there stood no chance in this wind. So the people had lost everything. They'd taken from us, but they'd lost a lot more than we had. Tom and his employer attempt to salvage the remnants. But before they can bring the shell of the yacht back to the shore, The looters return for one final assault. They torch the vessel. Like a floating beacon, it burns red orange for hours out on the waves.

A violent end for a boat that has already withstood extreme punishment. In a way, it's the end of this particular road for Tom too. I didn't know at the time that during the incident, I'd strained myself and got a hernia. I was really concerned. I was a commercial diver at this point. Diving's my livelihood as a physical job, and I needed medical care for this hernia. Insurance didn't cover me, so I had to travel back to the UK. Back home, Typhoon Masek gives Tom a new perspective on life.

An eye opener for safety. I was 28. I'd been abroad since I was 19, happy to go look here, just taken out of every opportunity that came up and had a real good time. time a lot more could have gone wrong that day in truck. I think having that experience and knowing that things can go wrong very quickly makes you prepare. Diving is still his passion as well as his occupation. Yet his survival experience leads him into new areas with a special focus on supervising marine salvage projects. At that point I'd made a decision to get a proper career and follow up my commercial diving. I'm now a dive supervisor who looks after other commercial

divers in the water. Obviously, dive safety was always paramount to me and the safety of my customers and guests, but overall safety, I consider myself now a subject matter expert in legislation and the procedures to make diving and boating as safe as possible. Tom's focus on safety in his work ultimately comes from a powerful insight about what happened in Chuck Lagoon in 2015. And the reason why, more than a decade later, he's still here to tell the tale. We're lucky. Captain did his absolute utmost to keep us safe as long as possible. If we'd hit that reef earlier, we'd have had a lot longer pinned against it with those brutal winds than we actually did. But yeah, what kept us safe? Look, mate, I think, yeah.

next time on real survival stories an epic battle between man and beast in the wilderness of british columbia in july 2019 colin dowler is exploring the rugged natural beauty around the southwest coast of canada after a night camping in the forest he's cycling home when an unexpected obstacle appears in the road up ahead and so a tense terrifying drawn out encounter commences. In the blink of an eye, Colin will find himself on the wrong side of an unfair fight, thrust into a deadly struggle against one of the animal kingdom's most powerful creatures. That's next time on real survival stories.

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