A 13-year-old boy has been credited with saving the lives of his mother and two younger siblings by swimming for hours after the family was swept away by the sea off the Australian coast.

Austin Appelbee swam 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) to shore to raise the alarm after getting into trouble with his mother Joanne Appelbee, 47, brother Beau, 12, and sister Grace, 8, on Friday, police said.

Rescue commander naturalist Paul Bresland Australian Broadcasting Corp said. that Austin’s efforts were “superhuman.”

“It’s estimated that he swam for the first two hours with a life jacket on,” Bresland said. “And the brave fellow thought he wouldn’t make it with the life jacket, so he ditched it and swam for the next two hours without the life jacket.”

Austin said he first went to get help in an inflatable kayak that was taking on water. He left the kayak and took off his life jacket because it was interfering with his swimming.

He said he tried to focus on positive thoughts as he swam for about four hours through choppy seas to shore, raising the alarm at 6 p.m.

“The waves are huge and I don’t have a life jacket on. … I was just like ‘just keep swimming, just keep swimming,'” Austin said Tuesday. “And then I finally got to the shore, fell to the bottom of the beach and just collapsed.”

The family, from the capital city of Perth, were on holiday using kayaks and paddleboards they had rented from their hotel around midday when rough ocean conditions and winds began to blow them out to sea.

A search helicopter found the mother and two children wearing life jackets and clinging to a paddleboard at 8:30 p.m., police said. They drifted 14 kilometers (9 miles) off Quindalup, Western Australia, after spending up to 10 hours in the water.

“The actions of the 13-year-old boy cannot be praised enough – his determination and bravery ended up saving the lives of his mother and siblings,” Police Inspector James Bradley it is stated in the press release.

Joanne Appelbee told reporters Tuesday that she sent her oldest child for help because she couldn’t leave her three children behind.

“One of the hardest decisions I ever had to make was telling Austin, ‘Try to get to shore and get help. This could get serious very quickly,'” she told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

She said she was confident she would make it to shore, but was filled with doubt because the sun had set and help had not arrived.

“We were positive and we sang and we joked and … we treated it like a game until the sun started to set and then it got very wavy. Very big waves,” she said.

Bresland, the rescue commander, told ABC the family waded for hours in the rough sea, and the mother managed to hold the other children with a paddle board.

“Physically, she just said, ‘I’m fighting, I can’t,’ but she just said they were looking her in the eye, and she just went ahead and held them together,” Bresland told ABC.

All three were shivering, and Beau had lost feeling in his legs from the cold by the time they were rescued, the mom said.

“I have three babies. All three made it. That was the only thing that mattered,” she said.

All four members of the family were medically examined, but none of them required hospital admission.

ua posting on social networksNaturaliste Volunteer Marine Rescue Group praised the family, especially Austin.

“The bravery, strength and courage shown by this family was incredible, especially the young man who swam 4 kilometers to raise the alarm and get everything going,” the group wrote on Facebook.