Featured Image Credit: YouTube/Jacob Childs
It's pretty much a universal fear: getting stranded at sea, with little to no hope of being rescued.
That's the terrifying situation that scuba diver Jacob Childs found himself in back in 2016, when he was separated from his group and spent six hours drifting off the south-east Queensland coast.
He recorded what he thought were some of his final moments in a heart-wrenching video:
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Childs, then 30, can be heard in the video saying: "So that's it. The sun goes down they won't do nothing. That's a wrap on old Jakey."
According to ABC News, Childs considered himself a "relatively experienced diver". He was in the water at Althea Wreck, around 30 nautical miles north-east of Bundaberg, when he was separated from his crew.
He reportedly missed the chance to grab the boat's tagline that he was with, which sailed off without him.
An extensive air and sea search was put into action to help find Childs, who filmed himself as daylight was beginning to fade.
It's an undoubtedly horrifying scenario, but one that has a happy ending - Childs was rescued at around 6pm, just after sunset, after being spotted by a plane, which meant Water Police were able to find him.
"It's a long time to spend by yourself," Childs told ABC of his six hours drifting at sea. The experience sounds even more nauseating as he could apparently see and hear the helicopters searching for him - but they couldn't spot him.
Most of us would be pretty scarred by that kind of experience, but not Childs - who seemed rather upbeat after his ordeal.
"I was nice and warm in my wetsuit... I wasn't overly tired as I was floating," he told ABC.
"I just wanted a drink of water and a cup of tea."
And he wasn't even that worried about the prospect of spending the night at sea.
It's this calm attitude that likely helped Childs survive - that combined with his obvious experience as a diver.
The officer in charge of the search operation, Sergeant Rob Jorna, told ABC: "He knew what to do, and his level headedness at the time, and he didn't panic and he did all the right things, and activated his safety equipment which alerted the air observer."
And would you believe it - the experience apparently hasn't affected Childs' love of scuba diving.
After being rescued, he told ABC: "I'll be in the water tomorrow probably."
