Stop, Assess, Plan

The callout last night was just after 1830 for a lost yacht.

Normally, we get a tasking from Ops that is about attending to a boat that needs help, however this time the first task was to find the boat.

Ops had very poor comms with the boat and their transmissions were very broken. Also, the person on board had lost his cell phone overboard. They were using channel 16 and seemed to be in a bit of a radio black spot. According to Ops they were either in the Mahurangi river or at Flat rock. We discussed with Ops and the best assumption, based on the broken transmission, was that they were in the Mahurangi river.

Off we went. Once out of the river there was a bit of a chop but nothing too uncomfortable. Round the corner from Mullet point the water roughed up a bit more as we ran into the 15-20 knot Southerly. While pushing down to the Mahurangi River we saw a 35ft yacht anchored close into the shore, north of Big Bay and just about opposite Moturekareka. It was flashing a light, we nipped over to check and there it was, our target.

He had run out of fuel and was on an almost lee shore, with an anchor down and bouncing around, not a place to stay the night. He had lost his phone overboard, and the radio on Ch 16 was in a bit of a blackspot. If he had used Ch 60 the repeater would have picked it up and comms would have been better.

Having stopped, we assessed his situation, put together a plan and then executed it.

First, we got him to clear away his sails from the front deck and then passed a tow line (with bridle) across using the throw line. He had a big bowsprit, hence the bridle. The back deck crew were using safety harnesses because it was bouncy and did a great job.

Once all was hooked up Dave kept station, with Glenn spotting for him, while the yacht was astern we raised its anchor. Once raised, off we went to Scott’s Landing at around 5-6 knots.

We got there and anchored him just off the landing in calm waters, helped to ensure the anchor was set, did the paperwork, and then home to Sandspit.

Washed up, fuelled up and were back home for around 2300. Great job from Glenn and Dave in the cabin and Neale, Nick, and Jim on the very cold back deck. Also, good job from Ops working to put the clues together that helped us to get to the right place.