KEY POINTS:
It wasn't exactly a typical high seas rescue.
It started with all the usual elements - wild seas, small boat in trouble, big boat responding to a mayday call, mad scrambles up ladders - but there was a surprise in store for the crew of New Zealand car
carrier Kiwi Breeze when they plucked two Japanese yachties to safety near Guam in the middle of the Pacific Ocean yesterday.
For starters, the younger crew member of the stricken Christchurch-built 11m Titicaca was 67. His mate was 72. Both were partially deaf. One suffers from high blood pressure and has reduced mobility due to the steel plates he had inserted into his back.
"It's blinking amazing, really," said Terry Riches, CEO of Kiwi Car Carriers, the company that operates the Kiwi Breeze, which was on its way to Auckland from Japan.
According to radio reports from the master of the Kiwi Breeze, Captain Clint Osborne, of Rotorua, the adventurous elderly duo were lucky to be alive after their plan to sail from Japan to New Zealand was quite literally blown apart.
"The yacht had taken a battering during the storm and the two Japanese gentlemen feared she would sink - they were lucky the Kiwi Breeze happened to be in the right place at the right time," Mr Riches said.
"Two of the three mast stays broke loose and were lost overboard. The mast was bent and the yacht was in imminent danger of being dismasted, which most probably would have resulted in damage to the pilot house windows causing flooding."
The Kiwi Breeze made three unsuccessful passes before managing to stop close to the yacht, allowing the men to make a seven-metre climb to safety via a pilot ladder.
"I understand the rescue was quite tricky because sea conditions were still rough and Captain Osborne and his crew had to take great care not to swamp or crush the yacht," Mr Riches said.
The skipper of the Titicaca had visited New Zealand previously and had friends living in Auckland. The Titicaca was en route from Japan to Auckland via the islands of Ogasawara, Pohnpei in Micronesia, Fiji and New Caledonia.
The families of the men have been informed of their rescue.
Captain Osborne and his Filipino crew were out of radio contact and could not be contacted by the Herald last night but the ship and its passengers are expected to dock in Auckland at around 6am tomorrow.
Mr Riches said the Titicaca had to be abandoned and would likely have been swamped in the high seas and sunk by now.
"It was the sort of thing that occasionally happens at sea," he said.