Harbour's perilous bar kills once more

As John Gardner and his mate headed out on the Manukau Harbour, they spotted what they thought were two buoys floating in the water.

Then they realised the orange buoys were lifejackets on the backs of two men close to exhaustion after spending two hours stranded.

Their friend, Robert Dale Edwards, 47, was not as fortunate and died in the water.

The three had been out fishing on Saturday afternoon when the small boat capsized after being hit by a wave while crossing the notorious Manukau bar.

Mr Edwards, who was also wearing a lifejacket, became separated from his friends.

The rescue, which followed two similar ones at the Manukau Heads in the past few weeks, prompted Manukau Volunteer Coastguard commodore Ron Craddock to warn boaties to take care on the harbour.

"The Manukau bar has the highest mortality rate in the country. The biggest message is just letting people know about the danger."

Auckland Central Sergeant Greg Sowger said a commercial fishing boat making its way back into the harbour spotted Mr Edwards' body and picked it up.

It was on the way to the Onehunga wharf when a crew member saw the other two men at the same time as Mr Gardner spotted what he thought were buoys. Mr Gardner said the two men, who are both in their 60s, were about 100m apart, and he went to the aid of one while the fishing boat went to the other.

Mr Gardner said the man was cold, shaking uncontrollably and near complete exhaustion as they pulled him into the boat.

"I said to him, 'How many of you are in the water?' He said three.

"He was just shaking uncontrollably. Although the water was warm I think shock just set in."

The men had hypothermia and one was throwing up from the salt water.

They were taken to the Onehunga wharf, where an ambulance was waiting to take them to hospital.

Mr Craddock said both men were lucky to be alive, and he credits the actions of crew on both boats which came to the rescue. "They were very, very lucky. That's the bottom line."

Water Safety NZ executive director Alan Muir said he did not know enough about the drowning to comment on why the man died while wearing a life jacket but it was possibly due to hypothermia.

Last week three men were also capsized at the Manukau Heads and spent several hours in the water.

Two swam ashore and the third was saved after the Westpac rescue helicopter spotted his reflective lifejacket.

A total of 110 people drowned last year.