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cook strait in a tinnie?


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A teenager had to be rescued by Coastguard after trying to cross the notorious Cook Strait last night in a dinghy.

Police say the 18-year-old set off from Kenepuru Sound about 10pm last night and went through the Pelorous Sounds in a motored dinghy before crossing the Cook Strait.

About 9am today the teen contacted the Harbour Master alerting that he had broken down off the Mana Coast, but was unsure of his location.

Police were able to geo-locate him from his cell phone and found that he was about 12km west of Mana Island. A Westpac helicopter attended and directed Police to his location.

"If it wasn't for him ringing and us being able to locate him from his phone data it could have been a very different outcome," Houston said.

"The battery on his cell phone was becoming flat. If we didn't have the mobile locate we would have had a massive search. The mobile locate, literally saved his life."

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12335636

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=mana+island+wellington&atb=v177-1&ia=web&iaxm=about

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if they go after the nelson trampers for breaking level 3 lockdown and needing $100,000s to extract them

which they probably should...

they should also somehow force a coastguard membership in this guy

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Agreed, but the issue when you dont know what you're doing is that you also dont know what's out there. You dont know what you dont know. 

I did some pretty dumb things in that area many years ago when I was learning!

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He did it and with a bit of help he made it ashore. There is a long line of folk who have done stuff without the blink of an eye that would have frightened the pantys of lots of other folk. And as IT says, if you don't know, then it really isn't a problem. life's a risk!

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27 minutes ago, Island Time said:

Agreed, but the issue when you dont know what you're doing is that you also dont know what's out there. You dont know what you dont know. 

I did some pretty dumb things in that area many years ago when I was learning!

Its what we call a learning curve🤣 Who hasnt attempted something out of the ordinary

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I remember once as a kid trying to go from  Martins bay to Kawau in an 8’ ply dinghy with a seagull. No life jacket, no phone. Luckily I couldn’t get it started but I did end up with a lot of welts on my back from the starter cord. 

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Reminds me  of a mate who’s grandad was a Devonport local and sailed up to the kermadecs solo in a mullet boat when he was 18 for a “ look around “ in the summer holidays .  He made it there and back scotfree by the sounds of it .

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I don't have an issue with what he did.
However, I would have an issue if he did this without telling anyone where he was going. I also imagine he might have underestimated the distance and thus amount of fuel he needed. I suspect he broke down due to being out of Fuel. The distance he traveled is a heck of a long way and he would have needed a lot of fuel on board. The weather can turn nasty out there quickly and the tidal current is fast in places. Underestimating the trip time by not accounting for those two things is easy to do.
A mate of mine and I have crossed the strait in a Jet Ski. He was on the Jet Ski and I was driving a 16ft support Boat. But we only went from Picton to the closest point of the North Island and back.

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What he did or try to do is it any worse than Collin Quincy rowing the tasman or kayaking oz to nz??

1983 sailed a hartly 16 from devonport down to coromandel up to kawau across to barier back to kawau then home. no outboard just me and the cat.trick was no rush over a three week period just waited till reaching and running.no issues at all.The old man was not impressed.

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A young guys adventure, I did crazy stuff in little tinnies that would give any coastguard bloke heart palpitations but I survived and made a career out of working at sea. Good on him

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