ANATOMY OF A RESCUE PART-1
The wind was hitting 60 knots. Saloon windows were smashed and the forward hatch had burst open. Water was pouring in with every wave. Busted stuff and chaos everywhere and blood was pouring from my crewmate’s head. The life-raft had vanished. So had the EPIRB. And the boat was sinking…
This was the situation my three crewmates and I faced after crashing sideways off a huge wave shortly after midday on October 14, 2019. We were about 25nm north of Cape Brett, nearing the end of a passage from Fiji. We were heading for Tauranga and had enjoyed five days of near-perfect sailing. But given the forecast gale we decided to head for shelter at Opua, in the Bay of Islands.
Despite the conditions I hadn’t been overly worried. I’d sailed in worse and, before falling off the wave, we’d been sailing very well.
But to start at the beginning…
We (Stuart and Pamela Pedersen, Pamela’s brother-in-law Steve Newman, and I) had left Fiji a week earlier on , the Pedersens’ centre-cockpit Bavaria 47. I’d not sailed on her before, but she was well-equipped and sailed beautifully. The first six days were everything an ocean passage should be: great company, competent crew-mates, pleasant weather and fast,
