New Zealand: Dingy capsize leaves 3 drifting

[DandyDon]

More than a near miss I think, an accident that could have been much worse. Sounds like 2 divers were cautious enough to take a non-diving friend to pilot the dinghy if needed, all involved did their best, and the only possible failure might have been failing to leave word with someone to come find them if they didn't return on time...?

From: Diver recounts dinghy capsizing - national | Stuff.co.nz

Swept into dark, angry seas off Wellington's south coast, a diver pleaded to his friend: let me go, save yourself, but look after my mother.

Max Ma, Han Yung Lin and friend Roy Xiong, all aged 30, were recovering in Wellington Hospital yesterday after a 16-hour ordeal that began when their dinghy capsized around 6.30pm Thursday, about five hours into a fishing and diving expedition.

Mr Ma fought the sea for more than nine hours as he swam to safety, emerging exhausted and clinging to a rock on the shore at Ohwiro Bay before dragging himself to a nearby house for help about 3.45am.

Feared drowned, Mr Lin and Mr Xiong were plucked from the waters of Cook Strait by rescuers shortly after 10am yesterday.

HELPING HAND: A rescue boat pulls up alongside one of the men who spent a night in the Cook Strait.​

Speaking from his hospital bed, Mr Ma said the trio became separated after their stalled boat began taking on water and capsized within four minutes, offshore from Sinclair Head.

"I seen the helicopter three times ... but it was really dark. I was trying to scream and trying to wave."

The first-year commercial diving student said that if it hadn't been for the efforts of Mr Xiong, Han Yung Lin – who could not swim and who only had half a wetsuit and a lifejacket on – would not have survived.

"I think Roy carried Han Yung the whole way on his back.

"Han Yang told Roy just let him go and to look after his mum."

But Roy, who had only bought the boat three weeks before, told Han Yang to save his energy overnight so they could try to summon helicopters in the morning, he said.

Police were alerted to a lone car and trailer at the Owhiro Bay boat ramp around 9pm, and a search was launched 30 minutes later, though it was hampered by the dark, choppy waters and absence of clues.

Setting out for the shore in waves up to two metres, powerful currents and winds gusting up to 90kmh, Mr Ma swam for an hour before looking up and realising he was further away than when he started.

Mercifully, the current changed direction and at 3.45am, he washed up in Owhiro Bay, too exhausted to stand.

"I was holding the rock 10 minutes. Then I just pushed myself up and make my way to the people who were living there and knocked on their door."

When Simon Baker opened his front door to find Mr Ma half-collapsed on his Owhiro Rd deck, wet and shivering, his first thought was that he was a drunk.

But as his eyes adjusted, he saw Mr Ma was wearing a full dive suit – and, through panicked gasps, was spluttering that his friend was dead.

"I said 'are you alright mate?' and he just sort of half-collapsed and said 'Can you dial 111, our boat's sunk and I think one of my friends is dead and the other one is missing'," Mr Baker said.

"The poor guy was just shattered, just exhausted."

Mr Baker, 35, and his girlfriend Hayley Budd, 21, helped Mr Ma inside and sat him on the couch, where they wrapped him in a dressing gown and covered him with blankets.

Ms Budd got him some hot water and Cookie Time biscuits, and the distressed diver told them how he had been swept up and down the coastline, swimming from Owhiro Bay to out near the airport and back, before he managed to get to shore.

"He was starving, and obviously really upset ... his eyes were just absolutely burning red from the saltwater."

In hospital later, Mr Ma gratefully recalled the biscuits. "They were my favourite ones, eh. I eat like half a box of them. I was really hungry."

Emergency services arrived and got Mr Ma into the shower to raise his body temperature before taking him to Wellington Hospital.

Mr Ma's emergence reignited the search, which had been called off at 3.30am. Coordinated by the Rescue Coordination Centre, it involved police, the Westpac rescue helicopter, Helipro, the Coastguard and a number of other boats.