Divers swimming near Rabbit Island lost their boat when the wind blew it away.
Divers swimming near Rabbit Island lost their boat when the wind blew it away.
Two men diving near Rabbit Island faced a long swim to shore after their boat blew away in strong winds.
Tauranga Coastguard operations manager Simon Barker said the men had been diving somewhere off Rabbit Island (Motuotau) on Sunday and when they came up, realised their boat had been blownaway.
"They managed to swim to shore and raise the alarm.
"It took them about an hour to swim to shore after they came up.
"They said it was quite hard because of the weather conditions. It was probably quite a struggle."
Their boat was aluminium and about 6m long with an outboard motor, so was practical for what the divers were using it for, but the conditions were against them, Mr Barker said. It was found about 1km off the beach near Omanu by another boatie, who radioed Coastguard.
