Freezing brothers 'huddled' to keep warm after being dragged six kilometres out to sea

Two Perth brothers have told 9NEWS how they survived 21 hours lost at sea, alone and drifting in treacherous waters in a tiny boat.

Two weeks ago, 18-year-old Jordan Geurts and his 12-year-old brother Tyson had to be winched to safety by a rescue chopper.

They were 40 kilometres north of their camp at Ningaloo Station – a sheep station in the Gascoyne region – and about six kilometres from shore.

The pair became stranded after running out of fuel inside the reef.

Their tiny boat was then dragged out to the open sea, somehow managing to stay afloat through the breakers.

A huge search was mounted but as night fell, their family was forced to face an agonising wait.

"You have to battle the demons of what might have happened," father Darren Geurts said.

"We didn’t sleep a wink, I don’t think anybody on the beach did."

Jordan and Tyson said the biggest battle during the entire ordeal was keeping warm.

"We did huddle (in order to keep warm)," Jordan said. 

"I would sit cross-legged and he would lie on my legs, and then I'd hunch over and try and shield us with our bait board."

The brothers and their parents said they will be forever grateful to those who helped to rescue them.