Making your own luck

Friday lottery ticket selling was interrupted by the pager going off just after 1400, so I left Len at our stall at Mitre 10 and headed to the boat. At this stage our task was a fairly routine tow from North Cove, Kawau, back to Algies Bay.

However, just as we exited the river mouth, we heard a distress call - from a very distressed sounding person. Clearly, they were in the water and using a hand held radio. The call was being handled by Maritime Radio, but it definitely sounded nearby.

We were pretty sure it was from a capsized dinghy, 1 mile off Snells's beach, so high-tailed it over there. As you'd expect from someone in the water using a handheld radio, it was pretty difficult to understand, but after a call of "turn left", we spotted some splashing and zero'd in on our boatie.

His small tinny had capsized, and he was in the water, holding on to the back of it. We retrieved him pretty quickly and he wasn't the only one smiling! We then collected various bits of floating gear, including a dry bag with his (still dry) phone in it, then went back to the dinghy, which had anchored itself when it turned over.

On pulling in the anchor warp, luck was still on this young man's side, with his fishing rod entangled in the chain and also able to be retrieved. A coordinated effort also had the dinghy on our back deck & after updating Ops and Maritime NZ, it was back to Algies Bay to drop him off.

So while it may have been luck that Kawau Rescue was only minutes away in this case, the boatie was wearing a life jacket and had 2 forms of waterproof communication, so was able to call for help when needed. In that respect, he gave himself the best chance of getting help if something did go wrong. (I do think retrieving the fishing rod with the tangle of chain was very good luck! )

We then resumed our initial tasking and headed to North Cove, transferred some kids over to our boat and towed a 5.5m Stabicraft back to Algies.

Then, just when it seemed safe to re-make plans for the evening.....sorry, one more tasking! Back to Kawau, to Stockyard Bay, to pick up a 9m launch with gearbox issues and tow it up to Vivian Bay, with 6 people on board.

This time Dave got to practise slowly creeping past their mooring, so the skipper could pick it up and secure his boat. We dropped the passengers ashore and headed back to Sandspit.

Thanks to crew of Dave & Neale, and onshore Airberth Al , plus Len with the Lottery, and Jane for helping Len once his sidekick had done did a runner! It takes a team.

To find out more about us and how you can help: