My £5K trip was something out of Castaway when I was shipwrecked, our boat caught fire & we had to avoid Komodo dragons
FLICKING through a brochure for a holiday in Indonesia you can expect to see images of cocktails on the beach, crystal blue waters and golden sands.
You might be less inclined to book should the tourist board be advertising a trip not dissimilar to that of Robinson Crueso.
But that is exactly what Sinead Newman likens her trip of a lifetime to the Southeast Asian country to after she ended up shipwrecked.
Single Sinead, 45, from London was about to complete the final sea-going dive of her PADI certification as part of her two-week, luxury £5,000 holiday when disaster struck, as she tells Fabulous in our new series, Holiday Horrors.
“I’d researched everything from the hotels to the dive instructors, flights, even the menus for months and months,” Sinead says in an exclusive interview.
“This was one of the world’s top places to dive and learn to dive and it really ticked all any holiday requirement boxes as I researched my vacations thoroughly.
“After taking part in diving lessons we enjoyed gourmet lunches on the top deck with amazing views of the Savu Sea in the Pacific.
“Everything was perfect. It was a dream come true, well until it wasn’t.”
In a matter of seconds Sinead’s dream vacation turned into the holiday from hell.
“One minute we were enjoying a lovely lunch, the next minute people were screaming we had to abandon ship and swim for our lives,” she says.
“My five-star, five-grand holiday ended in a sinking ship and being shipwrecked on a desert island.
“I became a modern-day Robinson Crusoe,” Sinead says.
“Most people get food poisoning or have their luggage lost.
“My dive boat ended up catching fire, it started sinking, we had to jump overboard into dangerous waters, swim for our lives and were shipwrecked.
“It couldn’t be further from what I had planned.”
Sinead had spent six months planning for PADI diving holiday arriving on exotic Flores Island in September 2019.
“A diving certificate was on my bucket list, and I’d saved for over two years to complete it in one of the world’s most exotic locations,” she says.
At lunchtime on day two of the dive Sinead said she felt a twinge of concern when she was eating her lunch and looked down the stairs to the lower deck.
“We had anchored on the coral reef two-hours from the main island. There was ocean all around us and only a tiny atoll of sand with one tree in the distance.
“I looked down the stairs and there was commotion near the engine and the boat crew waving and gesticulating wildly.”
Sinead took a closer look and was horrified to see one crew member drag an engine room attendant unconscious onto the lower deck.
“For a second I thought it must be a joke the crew were playing,” she says.
“But then I realised he was having difficulty breathing, and another crew member trying to revive him.
“The boat started listing to one side.”
As people started panicking, and the crew worked frantically to revive the engine operator, Sinead stayed level-headed and acted quickly.
“I grabbed a life vest, and a diving instructor calmly told us to move to the side of the boat and jump overboard,” she recalls.
“These aren’t words you want to hear but I was lucky we were all divers and swimmers, and so we made our way to a miniscule desert island.
“There was a closer island but the Captain said it was home to Komodo dragons and was not safe, you really couldn’t make it up.
One minute we were enjoying a lovely lunch, the next minute people were screaming we had to abandon ship and swim for our lives,”
Sinead Newman
“It was clear the problem had become serious and that below deck there was a fire in the engine room and if we stayed close to the boat it could have exploded, potentially causing serious injury.
“We helped each other and were lucky the sea was completely calm so it took us around 20 minutes to reach land.
“One of the instructors was swimming with the still unconscious engineer room attendant and we held up a towel to shade him while they got him breathing again.
“The island had nothing on it but a few shrubs, no trees and there was no water or anywhere to take shade.”
The boat’s captain used a satellite phone for an all-points bulletin SOS to any ships, speed boats or yachts in the area .
Meanwhile the diving instructors swam back and forth to the half-submerged boat to get oxygen tanks, first aid kits, bags and water.
“We were over two hours from the main island and when the first boat arrived, they took the seriously ill attendant and one staff member in an emergency dash to hospital,” Sinead says.
“It was really a life or death situation.
“We managed to find some towels and cover our heads from the hot midday sun and all we could do was wait.”
According to Sinead it felt like hours until a convoy of boats arrived to take everyone back to safety.
“I was scared but after the initial shock of jumping for my life from a sinking ship we became a gang of modern-day Robinson Crusoes,” Sinead says.
“The staff and instructors were brilliant, getting as much as they could off the boat before it sunk too deeply.
“They managed to retrieve my bag, but my expensive sun cream, shoes, books, notes and diving manuals were lost in the sinking.
“The heat and no shade were unrelenting.
“When I finally got back to my hotel that night, I was sunburnt, shaken up and exhausted but alive.”
The dive instructors offered a refund for that day only and after a rest day brave Sinead continued her dive course.
“The replacement boat took us past the sunken boat which had been stripped bare within 48 hours,” Sinead says.
“It was a reminder of our holiday hell.”
Sinead refused to let being shipwrecked prevent getting her diving certificate and graduated a week later.
“I was just grateful the crew member survived, and no – one was injured.”
“My diving disaster and holiday hell may have prevented many people from travelling again but not me.
“I had been shipwrecked and considered that a badge of honour.
“Three months later I was off on another adventure to Japan but this time though I stuck to dry land.”
Fabulous has contacted PADI for a comment