‘Like a cat in a washing machine’: rescued rower feared he would die in Cyclone Alfred’s monster waves

After walking down the gangway from the Australian navy ship that saved him, Lithuanian Aurimas Mockus fell to his knees in front of his wife, sobbing

Aurimas Mockus finally made it to Australia, but not in the manner he imagined.

Instead of triumphantly paddling in on the Kursis, the one-seater boat he’d been rowing for nearly five months across the Pacific Ocean as part of a solo mission from San Diego to Brisbane, he arrived in Sydney Harbour, relieved and alive, onboard a 16,000 tonne Australian naval ship.

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