A pair of Bay of Plenty divers who surfaced to find their boat had been blown away were faced with a lengthy swim ashore over the weekend.
The divers were ‘somewhere near' Rabbit Island on Saturday when they surfaced to find the boat had blown away, says Tauranga Volunteer Coastguard operations manager Simon Barker.
Coastguard were called after divers surfaced near Rabbit Island to find their boat had been blown away. Photo: File.
'It was a gnarly old day on Saturday,” says Simon. 'Although it wasn't rough, there was a lot of wind and chop. It was pretty nasty.”
It took the two men about an hour to swim ashore and contact the coastguard.
'We picked them up in Pilot Bay and went down to their boat, which was right down by Omanu by that time,” says Simon.
'Somebody had found the boat drifting and stayed with it until we arrived. They sat there rocking and rolling around in the sea for while.”
The boat was still around one kilometre off the beach when it was picked up, and a few kilometres downwind from Rabbit Island.
'Had the wind been blowing in a different direction, it could have gone anywhere – onto the rocks or out to sea,” adds Simon.
3 comments
help required
Posted on 07-10-2015 15:30 | By mutley
Perhaps these two need to become acquainted with a new piece of technology known as an anchor.
Coastguard
Posted on 07-10-2015 21:07 | By lizandbruce
Great result. I hope the owner of the boat reimbursed the Coastguard for their costs and a couple of thousand dollars as a thank you.
@Mutley
Posted on 08-10-2015 20:29 | By Papamoaner
Of course they would have been anchored, but sometimes it depends on the seabed and how much chain there is between the anchor and the rope. I would guess the anchor got dragged. Bad luck, nobody's fault.
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