Coastguard Whangārei rescues missing boatie stranded on island in harbour

Coastguard Whangārei's Circa Rescue vessel was involved in the late-night rescue.

A young boatie was found shaken and stranded on an island in the Whangārei Harbour after going missing hours earlier.

A two-hour rescue operation was sparked shortly after 10pm on Tuesday when the man’s wife contacted police concerned the boatie hadn’t returned from launching his small motorised inflatable boat in Tamaterau, Whangārei Heads, earlier that afternoon.

Coastguard Whangārei vice-president Brian Whimp said the last time anyone heard from the man had been six hours earlier.

“It was 10pm and dark. Luckily it was a good moon, nice and still, no wind, and calm seas,” Whimp, master of Coastguard Whangārei’s Circa Rescue Vessel, said.

The six-person crew, working with a vague location, used the tide movements to help determine where they should focus their search.

Believing the boatie had more than likely been affected by the incoming tide, they scoured the harbour’s main channel using searchlights and by shouting for the man.

Whimp said they encountered a few false alarms along the way - namely a pair of seagulls with a misleading appearance from afar.

Almost an hour into the search a family member received a text message from the boatie, saying he had seen Circa’s searchlights nearby but was stuck on an island.

Whimp said this immediately narrowed their gaze towards Limestone Island and Rat Island in the Whangārei Harbour.

The experienced skipper navigated Circa Rescue around Rat Island while the crew attempted to spot the boatie using infrared binoculars and searchlights.

“But there was no sign of him,” Whimp said.

The crew made the decision to take a second look around Limestone Island, the shores of which they had searched from the sea earlier.

This time proved successful as both the searchlights and night vision gear locked on the boatie, who was wearing a life jacket and was on the Portland side of the channel.

“When we came past the first time he was up in the trees probably sheltering. He probably heard us go past and came down on to the beach.”

Whimp said the battery on the boatie’s cellphone had started to get low when he was found at 11.52pm.

Coastguard Whangārei president Cherie Nelson said the man was “understandably extremely shaken” by his ordeal.

And while he wasn’t injured, he was cold, she said.

The man wasn’t up to sharing what had happened prior to his rescue, so Nelson said the crew went about making sure he was comfortable on the ride back shore in Onerahi where police were waiting to take him home.

“He was a young guy who just had the fright of his life.”

Nelson praised the positive result, saying it was helped by the man’s family contacting police when he didn’t return home as expected. She also acknowledged that he had dressed appropriately, had a lifejacket, and had some form of communication - although reminded boaties they should have two waterproof forms of communication.

Coastguard New Zealand noted there was no emergency equipment onboard the inflatable.