NZ Yachties safe at last

by Eleanor Wilson & Jo McKenzie-McLean, stuff.co.nz on 12 Oct 2005 A rescued Lyttelton woman is celebrating her 46th birthday today - a day her family and friends feared she would never see.

Heloise Kortekaas and her partner, Bruce Cox, battled for survival for four days aboard their 9.7m yacht, Janette Gay, after it lost its mast in atrocious weather on Saturday. They were snatched to safety in a rescue by the crew of the New Zealand Encounter about 6.30pm yesterday.

Because of concerns about the seriousness of Cox's hip injury, the Encounter headed for the Chatham Islands last night. Cox also has a gashed head and injuries to his right leg and Kortekaas has serious injuries to her right arm.
The Westpac rescue helicopter and the Life Flight New Zealand air ambulance will fly from Wellington to the Chathams today to await a suitable time and distance to rendezvous with the Encounter.

The helicopter will then attempt to winch the couple aboard, fly back to the Chathams and transfer them to the aircraft for the return journey to Wellington. The couple are due to land about noon.

Wellington Rescue Co-ordination Centre search and rescue officer Neville Blakemore said it was ‘fantastic’ to have the couple safe. ‘It's all the result of a lot of hard work by the air force, the rescue centre and the merchant vessels and, when it all comes together like this, it's a great result,’ he said.

The couple were bruised and exhausted but in good spirits, and were not suffering from hypothermia. Blakemore said the pair had been assessed in the sick bay of the Encounter and there was sufficient concern for the ship to have turned around and headed for the Chathams.

The 48,800-tonne Encounter, a P&O Nedlloyd vessel bound for Panama that left Port Chambers on Monday, sailed to the rescue of the Janette Gay after an SOS was put out to all shipping in the area, nearly 800km from the Chatham Islands.
Cox managed to start the yacht's motor once the Encounter reached the stricken Janette Gay and steer the yacht to the ship. The gang plank was lowered and the couple were help onto the ship.

An earlier rescue attempt by a 5000-tonne container ship nearly ended in disaster, with what witnesses called ‘a close call’ when crew tried to lower a ladder to the stranded couple but risked crushing the smaller boat amid 14m swells and 50-knot winds on Monday morning.

The Maunakea was diverted on its way to Equador but abandoned its rescue attempt the same day because of concerns of a risk to its crew. Cox and Kortekaas sailed from Lyttelton at noon on September 21, having spent weeks preparing the Janette Gay for their open-ended trip to the Cook Islands via the Chathams.
Friends said they had planned to go ‘treasure hunting’, diving on wrecks in the area.

The yacht was abandoned after the rescue and warnings would be put out to watch for it, said rescue centre spokesman Steve Corbett. Barry Groom, of Christchurch's Waikuku Marine Radio and a long-time friend of the yachties, said the couple's competence and experience had ensured their survival. ‘Bruce is a most competent fellow and what he ran into was the equivalent of the storm we had that ruined the marina down here,’ he said. If it was not for the competence of Cox and his partner, they would never have survived, Groom said.

He had been in constant contact with the pair until four days ago, when the storm hit and he lost radio contact with them. ‘For the last three or four nights, I suppose I've only had about three or four hours sleep a night,’ he said. ‘I'm very relieved they're back.’

Cox and Kortekaas had spent weeks refitting the Janette Gay, a Ganley Hitchhiker craft, to category 1 offshore standard. Cox acquired the yacht about three months ago.

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