Tenacious tug yanks trawler to freedom

JONATHAN DOW
Another set of waves broke on the rock shelf 100m off Mahia Peninsula, the tug strained on the wire rope and the 23m trawler Twofold Bay wriggled free from the sea floor and backed out to sea.
Watching from the top of the cliff at Kaiuku, on the northern side of the peninsula, at 1.45pm yesterday, the boat's owner, Tony Destounis, expressed his relief with two words, the second being "that".
Twofold Bay dragged her anchor and ran aground at 3am yesterday.
The trawler, with three crew aboard, had been anchored off Mahia. It was planned yesterday to steam back to Gisborne following a trip cut short after just one day of fishing by a forecast 45-knot southerly.
Mahia locals woke to see a trawler surrounded by only a few metres of water at low tide, just a 100m offshore. At 1pm it was high tide and waves were breaking into the stern of Twofold Bay, rocking it from side to side. It was only sitting in about three metres of water and only the bigger sets of waves brought the sea up to the waterline painted on the side of the hull.
"A harbour would be nice but not there," said one local man who watched from Kaiuku marae.
The trawler had to float or they would have to wait another 24 hours, Mr Destounis said.
"There's no risk at the moment, but we need to get it off now because we can't get it off at 1am." He was on the phone to Twofold Bay's skipper every now and then and was still optimistic.
"A couple of the big ones, if the tug keeps the weight on ... "
The trawler was not taking on water and the 14,000 litres of diesel onboard were secure. Part of the boat appeared to float when the bigger waves struck.
Earlier that day another Moana Pacific trawler, Lord Nelson, had attached a line to Twofold Bay and tried to keep it from being pushed any further up the beach.
The tug Titirangi arrived from Gisborne at 11.30am and the wire rope broke when the first attempt was made to free the Twofold Bay by having the tug tow Lord Nelson.
At 1.30pm Titirangi steamed north to apply its 28 tonnes of bollard pull from another angle.
Fifteen minutes later Twofold Bay was afloat and the crowd on the top of the cliff cheered.
Mr Destounis flipped open his phone again.
"How's she feel? No damage? She's going forward all right?" he said to his skipper.
"You'd better throw the nets over on the way home to pay for this, eh."