The skipper of a yacht in difficulty made the right decision to call for aid, according to Mangawhai Coastguard skipper Roy Pearson. Photo / Coastguard Mangawhai
A Coastguard skipper who helped rescue a stricken yacht battling 4m seas off Northland feared they would be “collecting bodies” had the boat’s engine not restarted.
The yacht had been heading back to Kawau Island from the Bay of Islands when it struck trouble off Cape Rodney.
It was battling 4m swells, winds gusting 30 knots, an engine that wouldn’t work, spilled fuel and broken gear. The crew were close to abandoning ship.
Mangawhai Coastguard skipper Roy Pearson told The Northern Advocate that the rescue on February 28 unfolded in some of the toughest conditions he had experienced.
Pearson was alerted about 4.45pm, and headed out with a crew of four from Mangawhai to support Coastguard Kawau.
“We were bouncing through waves ... we spent a lot of time in the air as you drive up a wave and come crashing down the other side,” Pearson said.
Visibility was limited.
“We [couldn’t] see the boat we were looking for because they could be on the other side of a wave,” he said.
“A lot of the time, the land was disappearing behind the waves, so you can’t see where you’re going, you have to rely on your electronics.”
The conditions were so challenging that they passed the yacht without seeing it.
The Coastguard crew members, once alerted by their on-shore team, turned around and found the yacht halfway between Leigh and Mangawhai about 7.30pm.
The yachtie on board, who spoke to the Advocate under the condition of anonymity, said it was “instant relief” when they saw the Coastguard.
The yacht, bought in the Bay of Islands days before, had no sails up when Pearson’s team arrived.
The boom had broken, the two-strong crew had lost all the lines to their headsail, and for a time, the engine had not been working.
They had a fuel explosion at some point, and everything was covered in fuel.
“I have no idea where from, but it just was like a couple of litres. It was so fast,” the yachtie said.
The yachtie and their inexperienced companion were in a situation that “couldn’t be any worse”.
They had put on several life jackets and had thrown empty jerry cans in the cockpit, in case they went overboard and needed something to hold on to.
They had managed to get the engine working again once rescue arrived. They then headed back north, but struggled without a headsail.
“We were just at the mercy of the ocean.”
“I told [coastguard] over the radio, I was like, ‘Hey, I’m going to go up the front. Keep an eye on me, and if I fall overboard, please come and get me’.”
Pearson said it was clear heading back to Kawau would be too rough in such conditions.
He said if it wasn’t for the engine being back up and running, he believed they would have been on the rocks.
“And we would be collecting bodies.
“They were saying that they were about 30 minutes away from abandoning ship,” he said.
The Kawau crew arrived about 15 minutes after Mangawhai and checked that everything had gone to plan before turning back again.
Once the headsail was fixed, the yacht started its long slog back to Whangārei with Coastguard Mangawhai’s support.
Pearson said his main concern was the yachties’ wellbeing.
“They’d been out there all day, they were now tired, it was going to get dark, they were going to be out there for another six, seven hours. And so we decided to just follow them ... shadow them all the way to Whangārei.”
The crew took turns speaking to them every 15 minutes, giving words of encouragement and tips on steering.
“You could hear in the radio conversation in their voice, the anxiety levels were quite high,” Pearson said.
“We know they’re fatigued, they’re unable to make good decisions ... we just started to take some of those decisions off them so that they could just concentrate on keeping the boat going.”
They escorted the boat to Marsden Cove, bypassing Mangawhai because of concerns the yacht’s keel would be a problem over the shallow bar.
It was slow-moving, and Pearson said they did not get to Marsden Cove marina until after midnight.
“Even sailing across oceans and around the world, I’ve very rarely come across conditions like that.”
To get the pair and their boat together in the same place was a “win-win scenario.”
Pearson believed the boat would have made reached its destination had it not suffered broken gear.
“You know, [the captain] was 90% of the way there when things started to go wrong, and I think [they] showed incredible wisdom in going, ‘Things are going wrong, I need some help now’.”
The yachtie said they were “ridiculously grateful” for Coastguard.
“They’ve got to be feeling pretty proud of themselves.”
Brodie Stone covers crime and emergency for the Northern Advocate. She has spent most of her life in Whangārei and is passionate about delving into issues that matter to Northlanders and beyond.