When he was ready to escape, Tan pretended the engine broke down so that people stopped watching the boat. He put a more powerful engine in at night and his group of 38 passengers left in the dark in september 1977. On board were Tan's pregnant wife tuyet, 27, their other babies dao and mo, and relatives, friends and neighbours.
With gold and cash hidden about the boat, tu do avoided the gulf of thailand pirates.The group managed to land in malaysia, where eight people could get off as refugees. after a month of trying to be allowed to go to america, Tan sailed for australia with his remaining 30 passengers. They landed in darwin on 21 november, 1977. Tan had navigated 6,000 kilometres from vietnam to australia using a simple compass and a map torn from the lid of a school desk.
The lu family went to wacol migrant centre in brisbane, where tuyet gave birth to a son Quoc. the tu do is one of just three refugee boats held in australian museum collections.
Reflecting on her own journey, tuyet says:
when i think about leaving vietnam i'm still scared. there were storms and many times waves as big as tu do crashing down and i thought, That's the end of it. to leave vietnam was a big risk but now i see the future for my children is much better.