. We want to say a big and ‘very sincere’ THANK YOU to Whangamatā G.J Gardner Coastguard for you fantastic assistance. A truly professional team.
We would also like to thank Kane O’Reilly and Karl for the selfless assistance and what you did for us with helping fix our steering component and getting us back out there into the fishing comp. We really do appreciate everything you did. Sincere regards the team off Midnight Oil.
The story:
Team Midnight Oil were up fishing the Kubota comp (side note: a very well run comp thanks Tom Maxwell)
We were on Day two coming out of Coralie bay and heading out wide aiming for the waters towards Barrier. We got out wider and the swells picked up over a meter and the wind was up and over 25 knots. We had turned into the action and all was (rough) but ok. Then we realised the boat was turning with the wind ….. we had lost both manual steering and autopilot. This indicated a loss in the rudder area. As we were at the peril of the sea and winds we tried using the bow thruster to turn and head for the Alderman’s… no joy at all. As soon as we turned, the wind took us back to where it wanted us (pointing outside of Mayor). We took about 8 waves over the back and two into the saloon. At this point out of precaution we donned the life jackets and raised the Coastguard. The team were on the scene as soon as they could, and we were hooked with the tow line and on our 32km stretch back into Whangamatā. As we had power and no steering, we were able to assist and take a bit of pressure off and speed up the journey - thank you all sincerely! We are grateful for everything.
Oh BTW ‘great coffee’ at the cafe at the Game Fishing club
There is still time for active people to join our team of volunteers. Contact Ken Worthington, phone 0212664383.