“Formal identification is ongoing, but they are believed to be the fishermen reported missing on Monday,” a police spokesperson said.
Coastguard Hawke’s Bay skipper Henry van Tuel said he and five other volunteer crew were over two-and-a-half hours out of Napier heading for Mahia Peninsula and battling three-metre swells in 11.7m rescue boat the Celia Knowles when the decision was made to call-off the search mission – about 31 miles at sea but with about 23 miles further to reach the search area.
“It was getting dark, and we were probably still two hours from where the men were seen a little bit south of Portland Island,” he said. “We were down to six knots – the boat usually cruises at 27 knots-plus. The visibility was poor, the wind was getting up, 20-to-25 knots, 30 knots at one stage, and it was getting dark.”
A veteran of 15-16 years on the crew, he told Hawke’s Bay Today back in Napier on Tuesday night: “We are gutted. It’s the first time we’ve ever had to turn back without an end to the mission.”
The crew was summoned after van Tuel received the call from Maritime NZ’s Rescue Coordination Centre (RCCNZ) about 2pm, answering that he was prepared to put to sea, test the conditions and decide whether it was safe to continue.
“I said what I’m willing to do is go out there, see what it’s like, and if we decide it’s OK we’ll give it a nudge.”
One of the missing men was named last night as Elwood Higgins, as tributes for the lost fishermen were posted online by anxious loved ones.
A woman claiming to be a relative of one of the missing men made an emotional plea for her brother to be found.
“Come on my brother, [I am] breaking into pieces over here listening to this storm kicking in. Feeling sooo exhausted, scared and helpless,” she said.
Elwood Higgins is one the three fishermen who were missing off the Gisborne coast.
Coastguard rallied after sighting
With the five volunteer Coastguard crew all called away from their day jobs, the Celia Knowles, involved in rescues off the Hawke’s Bay coast since it was launched new in 2009, was on its way in less than half an hour.
“We found the conditions quite challenging, we couldn’t head straight for the point, we could only do 7-8 knots and we tacked all the way up, like a yacht,” he said.
Asked how it compared with other missions for a Coastguard which makes up about 30 missions a year, from tows of depowered or disabled boats to rescues, he said: “This would be at the top end.”
The call-out came after crew of the African Tiger, a 180m ship that had departed the Port of Napier on Monday night, sighted two men off Māhia Peninsula, identified as being from the three-man crew of a Gisborne recreational fishing boat missing off Gisborne since Monday.
The ship’s crew was unable to effect a rescue in the conditions, losing sight of the men, but a New Zealand Defence Force P-8 aircraft dropped a liferaft in the hope it could be reached by the men.
With no further sign of the men, nor their boat which disappeared on a day’s fishing with two other boats and fellow members of Gisborne’s Tatapouri Sports Fishing Club, the search was suspended on Tuesday night to be reassessed in the morning.
Refurbished in 2022 at a cost of about $250,000, Celia Knowles had been as far as Māhia 2-3 other times in the last year, during which it was recognised as Coastguard New Zealand’s Unit of the Year for its search and rescue missions in and after Cyclone Gabrielle, and other missions.
