A boy aged just 13 has been credited with saving the lives of his Irish mother and two younger siblings after the family was swept out to sea off Western Australia’s coast.
Austin Appelbee swam for four hours, covering 4km to shore, to raise the alarm after he; his mother Joanne Appelbee (47), who is originally from Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan; brother Beau (12) and sister Grace (8) got into difficulties on Friday, police said.
Austin said he initially set off for help on an inflatable kayak that was taking in water. He abandoned the kayak then took off his life jacket because it impeded his swimming.
He said he tried to focus on positive thoughts as he swam for around four hours through rough seas for shore, raising the alarm at 6pm.
“The waves are massive and I have no life jacket on. I just kept thinking, ‘Just keep swimming, just keep swimming’,” Austin said on Tuesday. “And then I finally I made it to shore and I hit the bottom of the beach and I just collapsed.”
Austin Appelbee saved his family (ABC via AP)
The family, from Perth, Western Australia, were on holiday and were using kayaks and paddle boards hired from their hotel at around noon when rough ocean and wind conditions started dragging them out to sea.
A search helicopter found the mother and two children wearing life jackets and clinging to a paddle-board at 8.30pm, police said. They had drifted 14km from Quindalup in Western Australia after spending up to 10 hours in the water.
“The actions of the 13-year-old boy cannot be praised highly enough – his determination and courage ultimately saved the lives of his mother and siblings,” Police Inspector James Bradley said.
Joanne Appelbee told RTÉ’s Six One News on Tuesday she sent her oldest child for help because she could not leave the three children.
Appelbee said it was “one of the hardest decisions” she ever had to make to ask Austin to swim towards shore to raise the alarm.
She said she did not expect it to be “such a long and drawn out process” but that “we are all here to tell the tale, so that is the main thing”.
Appelbee said she was “amazed” at her son’s bravery but added “I knew he could do it, he’s that kind of child”.
“It was nothing short of a miracle that we made it,” she said.
“We had no food, no water, we were in plenty of water but we couldn’t drink that. We fell in [to the water] so many times, the waves were so high and those kids just kept holding on.
“We kept singing, we sang about Moana. We were looking for dolphins to see if that could help us back in and when it got dark, that’s when it really hit home, that we probably may not make it.”
Appelbee said seeing the rescue team was the “most fantastic feeling” and that she hopes to see her family and friends in Carrickmacross “very soon”.
All four family members were assessed medically, but none needed admitting to hospital. – Additional reporting: Associated Press