Skipper reveals chaos as ship sinks
Captain swept overboard but two crew still missing after Greymouth fishing boat goes down in heavy seas
The skipper of a doomed Greymouth fishing boat has spoken of chaotic scenes on deck as the Wendy J struggled in heavy seas and he and his crew scrambled for lifejackets.
Mark Thomas was swept into the sea at Smoothwater Bay on Thursday night and “somehow grabbed hold of a life ring in the water”, he told Westfleet general manager John Brown after being picked up on Saturday.
Dressed only in shorts and a T-shirt, Thomas took shelter in a flax bush and drank from a nearby creek while he awaited rescuers, who did not arrive until more than a day after the sinking.
He was found near the mouth of Teer Creek, about 8km south of the bay, a narrow and rocky cove around the corner from Jackson Bay.
The search continues for his two crewmen, Jay Cairney and Kieran Lynch, of Greymouth, with the police national dive squad heading to Smoothwater Bay and Homminy Cove yesterday.
Detective Constable Jayne Bretherton yesterday revealed two fishing nets believed to have come from the stricken vessel had been found by searchers along the same stretch of coastline.
It was also hoped the dive squad would reach the spot where the vessel went down.
“The boat is believed to have lost power, so an assessment will be made to determine how that may have happened,” said Bretherton.
Senior Sergeant Paul Watson of Greymouth said yesterday that police believed there was still a good chance the pair could be found alive.
Search teams were waiting for a break in the poor weather, which had been hampering efforts to search the shoreline.
“The indications are there is still quite a high chance of survivability, if they had been able to get out of the water,” Watson said.
Although the liferaft had been found inflated, there was no indication the two missing fisherman had managed to use it.
About a dozen police and volunteers were ready to continue searching the shoreline today, weather permitting. Haast-based commercial helicopters had also been pressed into service, Watson said.
They also relied on having suitable volunteers to search the rugged coast.
“A lot of the time they’re hampered by what they can do given the ruggedness of the shoreline.”
He was just wearing shorts and a T-shirt and was in the water a long time. He sheltered in a flax bush on land and drank water from a creek. John Brown of Westfleet describes Mark Thomas’ survival
The Wendy J got into trouble while trying to shelter from a vicious storm.
Brown said he knew something was wrong when someone spotted a liferaft but no wreckage.
The Greymouth-based fishing company had two boats in the Jackson Bay area at the time, the Te Aroha and the Wendy J.
“I got hold of the skipper on the 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 the Wendy J the night before and they were looking to anchor up at Smoothwater Bay.”
Brown contacted Maritime Rescue Control and they immediately sent a helicopter to search the coastline south of Jackson Bay.
Thomas was rescued from the shoreline and taken to the nearest settlement, at Neils Beach, from where he rang Brown, who drove from Greymouth to pick him up.
“Mark was worried about his crew,” Brown said.
“He suspected a craypot rope got wrapped around the propeller and stalled the engine. The boat started foundering in the heavy seas and there was chaos on the boat as they scrambled for lifejackets.
“Mark was thrown into the water and somehow grabbed hold of a life ring in the water.”
Brown said he believed his skipper was lucky to have survived, but said Thomas’ strong will had played an important role.
“He was just wearing shorts and a T-shirt and was in the water a long time. He sheltered in a flax bush on land and drank water from a creek.
“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 yesterday was readmitted because of an infection.
Thomas had just installed a new diesel engine to his boat, which he fishes under contract to Westfleet.
“We feel for the families of the missing crew and just hope by chance they are all right,” Brown said.
Okuru-based police marine search and rescue adviser and long-time local fisherman Kerry Eggeling said narrow and rocky Smoothwater Bay was “notorious” for big seas.
“In the past 10 to 15 years there’s been two or three reasonably major incidents there, and a whole swag of near-misses.”
The weather on Thursday night and Friday morning had been “horrendous” with wind gusts of about 80km/h on land. The boat made no distress call and did not set off its emergency locator beacon.
Max Dowell, who runs the marine radio out of Hokitika, said that up until 10 years ago fishermen would check in with him morning and night, but they “fell out of the habit” after the radio service transferred to Greymouth. “Twenty-odd years ago, 40 boats would call in morning and night, particularly in the tuna season.”
Now, just five Greymouth boats called in regularly.