Back up to back up plans

This afternoon's callout should have been simple, though long - a small boat asking for help with a flat battery off Wellington Heads, Great Barrier Island.

That's a long way to go for a pretty simple task, but it sounded as though these guys, as non-members, had already been floating around for quite a while hoping someone could help them.

"Air Berth Al" already had "Kawau Rescue" getting ready to go as we all arrived, and so a crew of 5 were soon zooming across the Gulf on a very calm sea.

Doubt arose as we closed in on the reported location and there was no boat in sight. We checked out a few possibilities, while the good folks at Ops tried to refine the vessel's location.

In our boat, cell phones were going flat and there was a language barrier with our customers - it wasn't going so well.

On spotting the DOC service vessel "Hauturu" heading west, we asked them to also keep their eyes peeled, while we circled around outer Port Abercrombie and an assortment of rocky islands.

Some of the crew seemed better at spotting fish than people, but they soon got back on task.

About 30 mins later, the Hauturu reported they'd spotted our customers enthusiastically waving hi-viz shirts near Horn Rock, a mere 7 nautical miles away from the first reported position!

With a change of direction, we soon located the 4.6m open boat and tied alongside. It is an understatement to say they were very pleased to see us. Luke burrowed in under the centre console, applied our jump pack, wriggled a few wires and soon had the outboard gurgling away again.

We handed over some bottled water (thanks again New World Warkworth ) to these rather parched fisho's, made sure they were pointing in the right direction to find Leigh Harbour and headed home ourselves. At least it wasn't going to be a tow!

A 65 NM sojourn for us and a lot of angst for these guys, heading towards a dark unknown night.

If you are heading so far offshore, best have a back up plan and a back up to that plan in case things fail. Neither the boat radio or GPS were going to work without power, making them a lot harder to find. Fortunately we had help from Hauturu - this could have been a different story!

Thanks to the sleuthing work in Ops, the crew of MV Hauturu and our crew of Bruce, Neale, Donn and Luke, all were safe.

(I've learnt my lesson - don't compile the monthly stats at midday on the last day of the month - that is just asking for a callout.)