Wind and weight

The pager went off last night at around 1930 and off down to the boat on a nice clear night.

The tasking was to a 34 ft boat with mechanical issues just off Moturekareka She was exactly at the given position and was fairly close into the shore, anchored. We had a chat and the likelihood was the starter motor was seized, or the solenoid was stuck/ broken. Decided that the easiest solution was just to tow back to Sandspit.

As boat to be towed was close to shore with other anchored boats around we put them in a short tow and pulled them out of the bay. Once out of the bay we let out some more line, then off to Sandspit at around 9.5 knots.

We barged up at the river mouth, clearly the boat was big and heavy and needed both the helm and the jets to steer it effectively. The helm full over just kept it in a straight line.

Rob took it down the river and managed to get our stern on the pile to push the boat in. There was some hesitation pushing the boat because of the current wind taking the boat sideways.

You don’t have much control over such a big heavy boat when your stern is close to/on the pile. After much wrangling the boat was in its berth, and we were off to refuel.

Thanks to Rob, Dave, Glenn and Paul P all of whom did a great job