Kayaker found after 6 hours at sea

A 10-minute paddle across Whangarei Harbour turned into a six-hour ordeal with Mark Morgan clinging to a kayak at the mercy of the waves and sea currents in total darkness.

The 62-year-old, who works as a fitter at the New Zealand Refinery at Marsden Pt, launched from a jetty near the refinery and was only moments from reaching land when a current, together with the waves, flipped him out of his kayak about 6pm on Monday.

A full-scale search and rescue operation was launched at 9.13pm when Mr Morgan’s partner raised the alarm.

At 1am yesterday Mr Morgan was spotted by a rescue helicopter team using night vision goggles on their final sweep of the coast near the Ruakaka River Mouth entrance — about 9km from his intended destination. In a sea of darkness, rescuers picked out a small flashing white light on Mr Morgan’s lifejacket.

A senior search and rescue officer said Mr Morgan’s decision to kayak across the harbour, with weather warnings and rough sea conditions forecast, was bordering on reckless.

Back home yesterday, Mr Morgan said he had been making the return trip from Reotahi to the refinery for the past eight months.

“The wind wasn’t that bad and was actually better than it had been in the morning.”

But in rough seas with the outgoing tide and against a strong northeasterly, Mr Morgan was flipped out of his kayak.

He inflated his lifejacket but it made it difficult for him to get back into the kayak. Mr Morgan decided to deflate his lifejacket but by then the kayak was swamped and he was swept out to sea. Survival instincts kicked in and he wrapped his arms through the deck lines of the kayak and used it as a flotation device.

“I couldn’t get back into it. I had no other choice but to stay with it, that was the only thing that was going to save me.

“I’m so grateful to them [rescuers]. And to think they’re all volunteers,” Mr Morgan said. — APN