Crew scrambled for life jackets in chaos
THE skipper of doomed Greymouth fishing boat Wendy J says there were chaotic scenes on deck as the boat foundered in heavy seas while he and his missing crewmen scrambled for life jackets on Thursday night.
Mark Thomas’ crewmen Jay Cairney and Kieran Lynch, both of Greymouth, are still missing, and the police dive squad was called in yesterday to help in the search.
Mr Thomas was swept into the sea at Smoothwater Bay and ‘‘somehow grabbed hold of a lifering in the water,’’ he told the man he was working for at the time, Westfleet general manager John Brown, after he was plucked to safety on Saturday from near the mouth of Teer Creek, about 8km south of Smoothwater Bay, a narrow and rocky cove around the corner from Jackson Bay.
Dressed only in shorts and a Tshirt, Mr Thomas took shelter in a flax bush and drank from a nearby creek while he awaited rescuers, who did not arrive until over a day after the sinking.
The search continues for missing crewmen Mr Cairney and Mr Lynch but was put on hold again yesterday due to atrocious weather conditions.
West Coast police said yesterday they were still treating the search for the two men as a search and rescue.
Senior Sergeant Paul Watson, of Greymouth, said they had been advised there was still a good chance the missing pair could be found alive.
‘‘The indications are there is still quite a high chance of survivability, if they had been able to get out of the water.’’
Although the life raft was found inflated, there was no indication the two missing fisherman had managed to use it.
Police had a mix of about a dozen staff and volunteers primed yesterday to continue searching the shoreline, weather permitting.
‘‘A lot of the time they’re hampered by what they can do given the ruggedness of the shoreline.’’
Haastbased commercial helicopters had also been pressed into service.
Wendy J got into trouble while trying to shelter from a vicious storm on Thursday night.
Mr Brown’s Greymouthbased fishing company had two boats operating in the Jackson Bay area at the time, Te Aroha and Wendy J.
‘‘I got hold of the skipper on
Te Aroha and asked if they were all right. Sometimes you don’t hear from a boat for a day. The boat had been in contact with
Wendy J the night before and they were looking to anchor up at Smoothwater Bay.’’
He contacted Maritime Rescue Control and it immediately sent a helicopter to search the coastline south of Jackson Bay.
Mr Thomas was rescued from the shoreline and taken back to the nearest settlement, at Neils Beach, from where he rang Mr Brown, who then drove from Greymouth to pick him up.
‘‘Mark was worried about his crew,’’ Mr Brown said.
‘‘He suspected a cray pot rope got wrapped around the propeller and stalled the engine. The boat started floundering in the heavy seas and there was chaos on the boat as they scrambled for life jackets.
‘‘Mark was thrown into the water and somehow grabbed hold of a life ring in the water.’’
Mr Brown said he believed his skipper was lucky to have survived, but his strong will had played an important role.
‘‘He was just wearing shorts and a Tshirt and was in the water a long time. He was cut and scratched, very tired and cold when I picked him up. His foot was cut and bandaged and he was sore and struggled to walk.’’
He was taken to Grey Base Hospital and discharged, but had been readmitted on Sunday with an infection.
Mr Thomas had just installed a new diesel engine in his boat which he fished under contract to Westfleet.
‘‘We feel for the families of the missing crew and just hope by chance they are all right,’’ Mr Brown said.
Okurubased police marine search and rescue adviser and longtime local fisherman Kerry Eggeling said narrow, rocky Smoothwater Bay was ‘‘notorious’’ for big seas.
‘‘In the last 10 to 15 years, there’s been two or three reasonably major incidents there, and a whole swag of near misses.’’
Weather conditions on Thursday night and Friday morning had been ‘‘horren dous’’ with wind gusts of about 80kmh on land.
The boat made no distress call and did not set off its emergency locator beacon. The Rescue Coordination Centre said the first notification it received was from the aircraft that spotted the life raft.
The police national dive squad was expected in Haast last night. — Greymouth Star