Dad’s four words of relief after hours clinging to overturned boat

Mar 22, 2025

A father has been saved in a late-night rescue off Rottnest Island off Perth.

Clayton Robinson spent hours sitting on the hull of his upturned boat preparing to swim back to shore when help finally arrived.

After more than five hours lost at sea, cameras captured the triumphant moment Robinson leapt towards the vessel that had come to his rescue.

Clearly emotional today, he had four simple words to sum up the moment he was found by rescuers.

“Yeah, it was good,” he said.

The father-of-two was on his way home from a solo fishing trip when his boat started taking on water.

“Grabbed the EPIRB out, put the life jacket on … it turned over soon after that,” Robinson said.

The distress call was made about 6pm.

The 41-year-old sat upon the hull of his overturned vessel, watching helplessly as marine rescue boats, planes and a helicopter searched off Rottnest.

But he had drifted 8 kilometres away and as night crept closer, the stakes rose.

“The plane and that went over me a couple of times,” Robinson said.

“So I was splashing the water and I was trying to wave, literally thinking how am I going to survive.”

Finally, about 11pm he was spotted

Robinson was taken to land by Fremantle Marine Rescue where he was reunited with his family. 

While he did all of the right things, there had been an issue with his EPIRB. The signal was short-lived, still it helped narrow the search and guided the emergency services.

“Stay with the boat, because they can’t see you without seeing that boat,” Robinson said.

“So I knew as long as I could keep that boat with me as long as I can is the best thing.”

Police have urged the public to remember the importance of always wearing a life jacket and carrying a registered, up-to-date EPIRB with GPS-enabled tracking to help alert authorities in emergency situations.