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Weisse, 31, also offered thanks to those involved in the rescue effort.
“We really wouldn’t be here right now talking to you guys … it’s insane the effort that went out,” she said. “We feel so blessed and so loved. I’m beyond words right now. What we went through and experienced was so intense. But we were so proud of ourselves, how we just didn’t give up until the last moment.”
The four were taken to join their eight other friends at the small surf retreat they had booked out on nearby Pinang Island, and they remained there on Wednesday morning, joined by Australian catamaran skipper Grant Richardson, who played a key role in the search, and Mohammad Iqbal, the captain of the boat the Australian quartet were on.
But while there was enormous relief they were saved, along with Iqbal and the resort manager Junardi Akhmad, there is great concern for Marongo, who was washed away in the current on Monday and has not been seen since.
The capsized boat was spotted by a privately chartered plane on Tuesday.
“Obviously, we hope he is safe, maybe stranded in one of the islands,” said Tonggor Gultom, an official in Nias with Basarnas, the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency.
“We predict that he is washed to the western side of Sumatra, probably the waters of Aceh Singkil and Sibolga, and we are focusing our search operations there today.
“We continue the search until Monday. After that we will evaluate the operation, whether or not it should be continued. Our standard operating procedure is to launch search and rescue operation for a week [and] after that make the decision if it should be extended or not.”
The boat had departed with a second vessel carrying the other eight Australians, which made it to Pinang Island after taking shelter behind another island in the rough weather.
Gultom said they had left from an unauthorised port in north Nias called Tuhemberua. There was footage on Instagram on Wednesday morning of them boarding the wooden boat at the port on Sunday, but it was quickly deleted.
“As far as I know there are no good boats [to travel in]. Tourists use that kind of wooden boat,” he said. “I started working here by the end of 2017. In 2018 we did similar rescue operations for two German tourists who wanted to go to Banyak Island.”
Weisse’s mother told Nine’s Today program on Wednesday that she and her husband Wayne had feared the worst before the four were found.
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“The phones just didn’t stop and then I heard Wayne scream upstairs and I thought, ‘Oh my god, someone’s rung to tell us bad news,’ ” she said.
“Then I heard him laughing and saying ‘Hey Steph’ and it was just the most unbelievable feeling.
“I really was preparing myself for the worst, so to hear her voice, crackly as it was and she sounded very tired, but we knew she was OK.”
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