By ROSALEEN MACBRAYNE and NAOMI LARKIN
Sixteen-year-old Kirsty Robinson, who survived almost 30 hours in the sea, begged her father to take her lifejacket as they clung to each other.
Kirsty was the only one of four people to be found after a 6m aluminium craft capsized near Plate Island in the Bay of Plenty on Sunday morning.
She watched two of her companions slip away as the upturned hull slowly sank. It finally went under about 3 am yesterday.
From her bed in Tauranga Hospital, Kirsty told Brian Goldsbury, longtime family friend and owner of the lost boat, that as she and her father clung together in the sea, he insisted she keep the lifejacket.
"She was actually trying to give him the lifejacket, insisting that she was fitter than he was. But he insisted that she keep it,and that was the end of it," Mr Goldsbury told the Holmes television show last night.
"She indicated that they [the four] were together for quite a while, and slowly each one disappeared up until her dad this morning at about 9 o'clock."
Searchers will be out again today looking for Ross Robinson, aged 45, Kirsty's cousin Tim Cantwell, 15, and a friend, John Lim, 38, believed to be an Auckland businessman down for the fishing.
Kirsty was the only one wearing a lifejacket when all four were flung into the sea about 10 am on Sunday.
A Tauranga Coastguard crew rescued her from the water about 11km east of Maketu after 2 pm yesterday.
The four had left for a day's fishing at 8 am on Sunday with Mr Robinson, a mechanic from Pongakawa, near Maketu, at the helm of the borrowed boat, named Mafoff 3.
It was the unofficial volunteer rescue craft for Maketu and was well equipped with safety and communications gear. Mr Goldsbury said he and Mr Robinson had carried out a number of sea rescues in the vessel together.
"He was my right-hand man in rescues of many other vessels and many other people over the past 12 years."
The boat was reported overdue at 6 pm on Sunday when there had been no word from the boat - which carried flares, a marine radio, an emergency locator beacon and cellphones.
Kirsty told her rescuers that the Mafoff 3 had rolled when the crew attempted to retrieve a stuck anchor with the use of a side-mounted winch.
All four scrambled on to the upturned hull and remained there until early the next morning, when the vessel sank.
The tide carried them away from Plate Island, which was too far away to swim to.
"It would appear that there were circumstances beyond anybody's control, and maybe a bit of bad luck," Mr Goldsbury said. "Kirsty said they tried to pull the anchor in, and things went amiss from there on."
An orange object was spotted from the air yesterday afternoon and a Tauranga Coastguard craft was sent to the area.
It picked Kirsty up about 12km offshore, and a Maketu Surf Club boat took her to the nearest suitable landing spot at Nudicks Beach.
An ambulance then ferried her to Tauranga Hospital where she was described last night as "stable but exhausted."
Teen's father last to slip away
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