A skipper who watched his friend and colleague die in the jaws of two sharks in South Australia yesterday had broken his own vow never to return to the sea.
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Howard Rodd was anchored at Perforated Island near Coffin Bay yesterday when professional diver Peter Clarkson, from the coastal WA town of Esperance, was taken by a pair of great whites. A search is underway for Mr Clarkson's remains.
For Mr Rodd, it was his worst nightmare come back to haunt him.
The skipper became famous across the country after a miraculous escape from a capsized boat off Ceduna in November 2000. Mr Rodd swam 14 kilometres to shore and crawled through a swamp to raise the alarm after his boat toppled in large seas.
His friend, Danny Thorpe, chose to cling to the upturned vessel rather than risk the swim through shark-infested waters to safety.
Mr Rodd, a father of four boys, said at the time: "I tried to get him to come with me but he wouldn't come. He just would not leave that boat."
His ordeal, which police said called for unusual strength and endurance, was as much emotional as physical.
He spent 50 hours trying to get help: 15 of them in the ocean, and 35 hours lost and disoriented in the desert scrub. He was eventually found by an elderly couple who helped raise the alarm.
Mr Thorpe was never seen alive again.
More than 50 items from the boat washed ashore, including a shredded life jacket he had been wearing. Police suspected a shark attack, and Mr Thorpe's body has never been found.
Mr Rodd vowed he would never return to sea after the incident.
"I shouldn't have left my mate," he said at the time.
"I should have stayed there with him, but I thought our odds would have been a lot better if I went for help."
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