Modern-Day Castaway
A real-life survival adventure

Could you survive alone, for 2 months at sea in a dugout canoe?In 1846, James Morrill survived a shipwreck on Australia’s north coast. Though the young sailor was then embraced by the local Indigenous community, in Modern-Day Castaway, Michael Atkinson asks, ‘Could James have built a vessel and made the perilous journey to a historic rescue haven in the Torres Strait?’With the cyclone season fast approaching, Alone Australia contestant and solo adventurer, Mike Atkinson, sets sail on an extraordinary 1500-kilometre journey to the northern tip of Australia. His aim: to live entirely off the land and sea.As malnourishment drains his body, Mike navigates his failing dugout canoe through the treacherous waters of the Great Barrier Reef, and along the wild and unforgiving coastline of Cape York. From crocodile defence tactics, to calamitous canoe failure, to fishing with adapted Indigenous tools, Modern-Day Castaway journals Mike’s epic struggle for survival.This is a truly unique book. A cross between Tom Hanks Castaway (although this story is real, not fiction!), a genuine shipwrecked sailor’s tale and Mike’s awe-inspiring journey of discovery.