JOSE “Boyet” Lim III, the courageous multiple owner of Toyota dealerships in Mindanao, concludes today his three-part story about his recent odyssey in the seas of Davao Gulf.
His epic sea survival in the dark night all by his lonesome for nearly 13 hours, just drifting utterly hungry and thirsty, could be well on the way to being made into a movie, if not a telenovela, that is worthy of rivaling the long-running Ang Probinsiyano series at ABS-CBN.
Conclusion
FINALLY, I saw an opening. A very strong high tide current was coming along and I decided to make a go of it: Swim to shore.
Behind me to my right shoulder, the morning star looked like it was falling toward me.
I was riding a current over three knots strong, headed north northwest. Within almost two hours, I could see fishermen from Talikud trying their early catch.
I spotted two low-flying search and rescue planes in the sky. There was a boat that was going to the dive spot from the west, a Navy vessel maybe, by its color gray.
Then another vessel, white this time, maybe of the Coast Guard, was making its turn at Babusanta. It also stopped at the dive spot.
Too far to see me
THEY were just too far to see me, perhaps even too far for me to make my impressions, if not for the search operation that I knew was going to happen.
I was targeting Babusanta at dead north from where I was. This meant riding the seven-degree north northwest current diagonally. Very doable.
Then I stopped, for a hopeful reason, and got drifted again north northwest. There was a speeding boat from the west that was heading toward my direction, either because it was avoiding the fishermen or just chilling at top speed—aimlessly.
If it were after a fishing spot, it would miss me. Again. But if it were a search boat, it should find me.
I signaled and hollered as it was passing me about 200 meters away.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
Four seconds.
Five seconds.
Nothing.
A search boat
AND then it slowed down, turned toward me, speeding again.
It was a search boat.
He yelled as he came close: “Sir Lim?”
Finally, I was found at 5:52 a.m. of the following day, after 12 hours and 46 minutes afloat somewhere in the 308,000-hectare Davao Gulf.
It took us about 15 to 20 minutes to pass the corner of Babusanta with the boat speeding at 30 mph, at least.
This meant that I was anywhere between 7 and 10 miles away from Babusanta at the spot where I was found.
I must have drifted at least 35 miles in all that night, in all directions. It sure would be hard and crazy to do that intentionally.
Dumb flashlight
IT was a grueling experience, enriching, to say the least. But above all, I thank the Almighty for protecting me from harm; my family, teammates, fraternity brothers and sisters, and friends who prayed very hard for me.
I could hear them in the pitch dark and still of the night; and those who planned and did everything to accomplish the near impossible of finding me, or my remains. I am very sorry for all the trouble the dumb flashlight has caused us all. It will never happen again.
From me and my family, thank you so much! Thank you for the love and friendship. Thank you for the prayers.—Boyet
Postscript
BRUNCH at 10:30 a.m. the day I was rescued consisted of one small cup of rice, a matambaka fish for viand paired with half-boiled okra and ampalaya, tomatoes with ginamos, and a fried egg.
Next bite was a boiled banana at 3:45 p.m. downed with half a liter of water.
As the dive, which ended at dusk and extended into the night without sleep, was a mishap, I had no food or water, until I was rescued at 5:52 a.m. of the following day.
My tangigue (spanish mackerel) catch, which served its valuable purpose, was still there intact.
There were large bats in the night but the sharks that usually swim in our minds weren’t there at all.
I drank 330 ml of water for the hourlong trip from the point where I was rescued up to the marina.
I was pleasantly surprised to see a medical evacuation plan in place at the jetty, with ambulance, medics and all, that brought me straight to the Metro Davao Regional Medical Center.
I would have been moved to the nearby Southern Philippines Medical Center where the ICU and heart unit had been prepared for my admission, had there been something really wrong with me. The preparation was at the request of our good mayor, Mayor Sara Duterte, I heard.
But my blood pressure was normal at 120/70; and so were my pulse rate and oxygen level. No bruises or contusions, nothing, except for a pinch of hematoma on my left foot that was caused by my fin movements as I had swam and drifted for hours. I was not a near-drowning victim, so x-ray was out of the question. All vital signs were A-ok.
At around 8 a.m., I was back in my Bloomfields residence in Davao, took a shower, drank water and ate fruits leisurely, and took a bite of egg sandwich and popsicle before falling into a deep sleep from 11:45 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. I also slept soundly that night.
Thanks be to God it was not an insurmountable ordeal after all. I have now been called by all exaggerations in comments to my post, from Aquaman to Ironman to Superman to Avenger.
I’m glad no one has baptized me Lazarus.
PEE STOP God permitting, I’ll be homeward bound from Sydney by the time you are reading this. The missus had to attend their high-school reunion there, our journey spiked by a side trip to Canberra. As usual, I was her bodyguard in this my sixth trip to Down Under since I flew to Adelaide in 1985 to cover the Asia-Pacific Golf Championship (I was with the Bulletin then). Melbourne was next in 1992, and then the next three were all to Sydney. The highlight, of course, was when I covered the 2000 Sydney Olympics as the Inquirer’s sports editor. The last one to Sydney was in 2015, when Bobby Rosales invited me to cover the BMW World Golf in the company of Karl Magsuci, Bong Santos and the ageless Tom Alvarez. In all my six trips to Sydney, PAL was my carrier. I am that patriotic, you know. Ahem!