Three men on a late-night fishing trip narrowly escaped tragedy after their aluminium dinghy sank in the Bay of Islands this morning.
The trio were not wearing life jackets when their 3.6m boat is understood to have been hit by a large wave around 3am at Wairoa Bay, causing it to sink.
One man managed to swim to shore near Waitangi Mountain Bike Park, where he alerted police.
His two crewmates were last seen clinging to a chilly bin in the water.
Northland Police Search and Rescue lead Detective Sergeant Paul Overton said a coordinated search and rescue response began straight away.
Search and rescue assets, including the Coastguard Bay of Islands unit and the Auckland-based Westpac Rescue Helicopter were deployed.
Coastguard Bay of Islands skipper Rafe Tollemache and a crew of five headed out around 7am, understanding the trio had been near Brampton Reef – a notorious spot.
“It’s kind of a dangerous place to be in a boat,” he said.
He said the water gets shallow and waves steep, especially with onshore winds like those seen today.
Tollemache believed the trio should not have been out there at night. He said they had no lifejackets, it was dark, they were somewhere considered unsafe and had no navigation systems onboard.
“ ... It doesn’t take too many sort of factors of risk before they all add up and something goes badly wrong.”
The Coastguard crew were in the area for about two hours, conducting searches and communicating with Coastguard and the helicopter.
“We could see the people doing the searches on the beach and rocky areas on shore, so it was a coordinated search on the water, in the air and along the waterfront to try and find these missing two people.”
Just after 8am, an officer who borrowed a motorbike from nearby Baylys Farm to conduct shoreline checks discovered one of the missing men.
“Thankfully, other than being cold, he was uninjured,” Overton said.
Within the next hour, the Westpac Rescue Helicopter had managed to locate the third missing man on the rocks near Baylys Farm.
Tollemache said there was some land between them and the helicopter, but they could see it performing the winch above some trees.
Hato Hone St John treated three patients at the scene. Two – including the boatie rescued from the rocks – were taken to Bay of Islands Hospital in a moderate condition. The third person had minor injuries and did not require hospital treatment.
“I cannot stress just how incredibly lucky these three men are,” Overton said.
“This situation could have had a dire outcome and we’re thankful we’ve been able to return these men back to their loved ones.”
The rescue came just weeks after a training exercise simulating a similar situation.
“Undergoing that training paid dividends during this rescue,” Overton said.
“Most recreational boating deaths occur close to shore in small craft.”
Overton said the incident had an amazing outcome and demonstrated strong coordination between Police, Far North LandSAR, Coastguard, Westpac, Maritime NZ and Northern Rescue.
Tollemache was surprised by how like the training exercise today’s rescue had been.
“ ... It’s amazing how you can make up a scenario and then a short time later the actual thing happens in the same area with the same sort of scenario that you’ve just trained for,” he said.