grant 40 Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/south-paci ... ns-to-land Link to post Share on other sites
Kestrahl 6 Posted June 16, 2012 Share Posted June 16, 2012 16 June 2012 - 4.45pm A second full day of searching has failed to find two men missing since their yacht was wrecked off the island of Late, west of the island of Vava'u, Tonga, on Thursday night. The Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ) is coordinating the search for an Australian and an Englishman (also an Australian citizen), both in their sixties, who reported via a satellite phone call to a relative in Victoria, Australia, that they had run aground and their 50ft Bavaria yacht, Navillus, was breaking up. An emergency locator beacon was activated at the same time, around 10.30pm. An on-water search yesterday, involving two local fishing vessels, and an aerial search by an RNZAF P3 Orion, located the wreckage of the yacht, but did not find the two men. Today, a local fishing vessel searched waters near Late Island, and a fixed wing aircraft conducted an aerial search, with no success. RCCNZ Search and Rescue Mission Coordinator Tracy Brickles said searching had now concluded for the day. “The fishing vessel has today comprehensively covered the likely areas identified through our drift modelling,” Ms Brickles said. “Conditions were good for searching and our search crews are confident they would have seen the men if they had been in the water. “On-water and aerial searching is now complete.” Ms Brickles said crew from one of the fishing vessels had gone ashore yesterday to check the nearest landing points to the area the wreck was found. However, RCCNZ was in the process of organising a team of locals to do a more comprehensive search of the island. “We hope to have a team of locals onshore searching tomorrow, or Monday at the latest, depending on availability of people and transport.” The yacht is understood to have been en route from the Caribbean to Bundaberg. The Police in Victoria are coordinating contact with the next of kin. RCCNZ will not release the names of those involved. A further update will be provided tomorrow (Sunday) around 8am. Link to post Share on other sites
wheels 543 Posted June 16, 2012 Share Posted June 16, 2012 How sad. All that way for it to end so close to home. Plus it doesn't seem to sound like a good outcome, which is even sadder. Was the weather/sea bad does anyone know?? The saw the Orion come back in and was going to go take a pic of it. When they do a low level Sea search, or are in bad weather over the sea, they put the aircraft through a water curtain just off the runway. The entire craft disappears in water spray with engines running. Quite awesome to see. But I left the camera on the boat. Link to post Share on other sites
tuffyluffy 76 Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 Was the weather/sea bad does anyone know?? Some good friends of mine arrived in Tonga earlier last week after a 13 day sail from NZ, two handed on a 40fter. They have done the trip several times and are very experienced. They commented that it was the worst trip ever, strong winds on the nose and horrible sea conditions. They arrived in Tonga completely exhausted, to the point where they were making bad/dangerous calls due to the exhaustion - they were fit and in their early 40s Based on their summary of the trip, it sounds like these 2 souls could have been in a pretty bad mental state by the time they got close to Tonga. Hence simple navigation and judgement may have been an issue. Link to post Share on other sites
Kestrahl 6 Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 17 June 2012 - 3.30pm Due to heightened sea states in Tonga, around the islands of Vava'u and Late, the fishing vessel carrying the search party arranged to look for the two missing Australians was not able to reach Late today as planned. Therefore, no searching has taken place today. The Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand has arranged for two vessels to go out and recommence the search at first light tomorrow. An update will be sent to media around 8am tomorrow. Link to post Share on other sites
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