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Mandurah mates Jackson Perry and Noah Palmer rescued after ‘mattress boat’ drifts out to sea

Ben DownieThe West Australian
VideoMates' daring mattress rescue from ocean off Perth.

Two Mandurah mates required a high-stakes rescue after their makeshift mattress boat was swept kilometres offshore.

Equipped with nothing but an esky filled with frothies and a dying phone— the two men were stranded out at sea for almost three hours.

One of the voyagers, Jackson Perry, said they only wanted to go for a float along the water on Saturday.

“We had this mattress out the front of Noah’s house, it was a bit deflated, so we decided to pump it up go down and have a drift on the water ... probably only 50m,” Mr Perry said.

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Mr Perry told 7NEWS the wind picked up and sent them adrift. “We got a bit too far out, the wind kept picking up and we got sent out to sea,” he said.

His first-mate Noah Palmer said their stress escalated after their beers started to run out.

“As long as we had enough beers to keep us going we were all right ... as soon as the beers got a bit low we tried to head back in,” Mr Palmer said.

Jackson Perry and Noah Palmer, from Mandurah, who had to be rescued after taking their mattress offshore.
Camera IconJackson Perry and Noah Palmer, from Mandurah, who had to be rescued after taking their mattress offshore. Credit: 7NEWS/7NEWS

Their barely seaworthy vessel started to slowly sink from holes in the mattress.

“So Noah’s like jumping off every 10 minutes to keep blowing the mattress back up,” Mr Perry said.

Mandurah Volunteer Rescuers received their call for help with Tex Reeks and Rueben the first to respond. They couldn’t believe what they saw.

“Rueben spots this thing out, way out in the ocean on the horizon and he goes ‘I think that’s them Tex’ ... I go ‘surely not, there’s no way they’re that far out on a mattress,” Mr Reeks said.

“Even if the boys pack more than an esky on their next voyage it’s still very unsafe.”

Surf Lifesaver Patrick Rivers warned would-be copycats that what began as a lighthearted story could have easily turned deadly. “It could (have been) a search and rescue operation which would’ve been very regrettable,” he said.

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