Teen rescued after strait dinghy crossing
A man who set out from the South Island with nothing but a life jacket and a cellphone in a dinghy is lucky to be alive after being found off the coast of Porirua, police say.
Senior Sergeant Dave Houston, officer in charge of the Wellington police maritime unit, said the
18-year-old, who set off about 10pm on Wednesday near Kenepuru Sound near the top of the South Island, was ‘‘a bit confused’’ when police contacted him.
He was only discovered when – after travelling overnight through the Pelorus Sounds in a motorised dinghy and then crossing Cook Strait – he was able to ring the harbourmaster yesterday about
9am. The harbourmaster then contacted police, who made contact with the teen on his phone. ‘‘There was a little bit of confusion on where he was . . . [he] told us he’d broken down.’’
The teen estimated he was a ‘‘couple kilometres’’ away from Mana Island, near Porirua but he had broken down and wanted to get to Porirua Harbour.
Police texted his phone and, after he responded to it, emergency services were able to get his location. He ended up being about
12km west of Mana Island.
The reason given for his late night voyage was ‘‘essentially, [he] wanted to visit a relative in Wellington’’, Houston said.
He packed extra fuel, and was wearing a life jacket but other than that and a cellphone there was nothing else.
After police got his exact position, they dispatched Coastguard to attend, and the police launch also responded. ‘‘[He was] definitely relieved [when we got him], and saturated – we put some warm blankets on him.’’
A paramedic on the Westpac rescue helicopter was winched down to assess the teen. Houston said he was in a ‘‘pretty good’’ state, which surprised emergency services. He had no food or water, but was in ‘‘good spirits’’ and appeared healthy.
Houston said the teen didn’t check the forecast before leaving the South Island. Fortunately, for his sake, Houston said, conditions were ‘‘pretty good’’, other than a slight southerly blowing.