A rescue swimmer plunged into the stormy sea to retrieve Enchanter's survivors and the winch operator who drew them all to safety have spoken about the gripping chopper mission.
When an emergency locator beacon was activated around 8pm on March 20, Paul Davis - Northland Rescue Helicopter lead winch operator and St John critical care paramedic - was off-duty.
An urgent call 45 minutes later thrust the 46-year-old from the comfort of his Whangārei home on to the frontline of a dramatic rescue at North Cape.
After a short drive to the rescue helicopter base in Kensington, Davis went into action alongside St John critical care paramedic Josh Raravula, 29, to prepare for the task ahead.
"All we knew was an emergency locator beacon had been activated that was registered to a fishing charter vessel, 16m in length with 10 people on board," Davis said.
"We didn't know what the issue was so we planned for the worst-case scenario which is people in the water."
Together with pilot Lance Donnelly and co-pilot Alex Hunt, the duo ran through checklists and hurriedly swapped the chopper's equipment with essential gear for winch rescues.
Raravula half-donned his wetsuit with a T-shirt on top so as not to overheat on the 50-minute flight to Kaitāia where the team planned to refuel.
He had a rescue swimmer's kit of snorkel and mask, fins, booties, a flotation device and special strops for retrieving patients in open water.
By 10pm they were in the air.
The storm gusting south from Northland's tip played on their minds.
"Prior to landing at the Kaitāia Hospital helipad we were able to get a better appreciation of the weather north," Davis said.
"The conditions were atrocious. Wind, rain, low cloud, poor visibility, high sea states, high swells - very challenging conditions."
Confident they'd reach the search area in North Cape, the team set off at 11.15pm towards the emergency beacon's location.
This final lift-off was Raravula's cue to fully suit up.
He sat with his wetsuit zipped to the top, mentally preparing for a task not fully known.
"There's only so much mental preparation you can do. You remind yourself of some of the key factors of your training.
"Like when there's people in the water and they're distressed ... if people are panicking you've got to make sure not to get too close."
But mostly you have to take the situation as it comes, Raravula said.
As the 25-minute flight progressed and the team searched for beacons, thoughts about the challenges of water rescues in these conditions churned over in Davis' mind.
"I've encountered conditions like that on missions before. The issue with this particular mission is that there's a number of people," he said.
Suddenly two lights appeared in the swell below.
"It was surprisingly easy to find them, which is never the case," Davis said - he gives credit to the locator beacon.
"One of those light sources was pretty much where the co-ordinates placed us."
The chopper headed straight for the first light that was surrounded by splintered parts of the ruined Enchanter.
Among the flotsam was a large piece of debris - likely the vessel's flybridge and on it were three men.
The team carried out a quick scene assessment before laying out a plan of attack. With no other boats to help, a winch retrieval was the only option.
The pilots endured the gruelling task of keeping the chopper in the stable hover needed for a successful winch rescue.
"In order to do that they need a point of reference ... the problem is at night, out on the water there's nothing for them to reference other than the people in the water and they're moving," Davis said.
Raravula, attached to a wire, was carefully lowered into the 3m swells by Davis. He attempted to keep track of the men as the wind spun the wire.
All the while Davis has his mind split between multiple crucial tasks.
"I'm paying close attention to our proximity to the target where the survivors are, Josh's position above the water, I'm conscious of our height above the water that's fluctuating between 25 to 50 feet, I'm communicating with the pilots - there's a whole bunch of things I'm thinking about.
"Winch-operating is a real multi-tasking job," he said. "But I've developed those skills over time to a point where it's just become second-nature."
Fifteen meters below them, Raravula met the turbulent sea.
"I was already sweating in my wetsuit so was keen to get into the water which was actually quite warm."
He was grateful the 10m path from him to the men was clear of debris.
"I could see underneath the water actually. There was a lot of cable or rope hanging under there," Raravula said.
He clambered his way onto the scrap of flybridge, where he came face to face with the first group of survivors.
"They were actually pretty calm and collected I thought. You wouldn't have thought they'd be clutching onto a wreckage for four hours in complete darkness."
The sound of the sea and the chopper overhead made communicating difficult.
"I just said, who needs to go first ... they all looked at each other and then nominated one of the guys to come forward."
Raravula was relieved the men appeared to be moving fine.
As each man's turn came to be rescued, Raravula instructed them to raise their arms so he could put place the strop under their arms, before pulling the second half under their knees.
Then it's a thumbs-up to Davis to winch them slightly above the water, where Raravula pulls the chest strap tight and checks his patient is secure. Then a second thumbs-up that finally has them plucked from disaster.
"The first three rescues were pretty simple because we were basically sitting on that wreckage," Raravula said.
With no other survivors in view, the rescuers whisked the visibly relieved men away to a makeshift base in a Te Hapua paddock.
Along the way, they chatted with them to try to discover where the remaining eight men may be or how they may be able to identify them.
"When we flew back out to the search area after dropping the first three survivors we then decided to investigate the second light source," Davis said.
The light turned out to be a cellphone held towards the sky by one of two survivors stricken on top of the Enchanter's upturned hull.
"The vessel was quite precariously positioned," Davis said. "They were getting smashed by the waves."
The team quickly repeated the process of lowering Raravula into the sea.
"There was a lot more whitewater," Raravula said.
He worried whether the men would be okay going into the water - especially if they were injured or hypothermic - in the likely event he wouldn't be able to get onto the hull.
"As I started approaching I was trying to work out how I would get onto it and straight away they saw me and just leapt.
"When they jumped into the water towards me I thought okay that's good, they're physically able as they can swim."
The first man used a rescue tube held towards him by Raravula, which made the process of strapping him in easy.
For the second man, the tube was left on the chopper as the cord made it a "tangle hazard", Raravula said.
"It was just me and the strop," he said.
"That time I remember the waves going over both of us and he was having to hold his breath as I was having to go underneath to try and get the strop in place.
"That one was more difficult but we got there in the end," Raravula said.
Once the last of the two survivors were hoisted to safety, low fuel meant the team had to abandon the search.
A tough reality softened slightly as the Auckland Westpac Helicopter arrived to pick up the trail.
"Obviously, we're all keen to get back out there and complete the mission and get everyone we can," Davis said.
"Unfortunately there are realities to the task - the main ones being fuel and weather."
Raravula said while there was a shared sense of relief, there was the undertone that five people - Cambridge men Richard Bright, 63, Mike Lovett, 72, Geoffrey Allen, 72, Mark Walker, 41, and Mark Sanders, 43, from Te Awamutu - were still out there.
Tragically, all of whom lost their lives.
"That was a tough one," Raravula said.
However, both Davis and Raravula have spent a collective 20-odd years working in the paramedic space.
"Because I've been doing this job for a long time now, just in the ambulance and being around those sorts of situations and those tragedies, you do build up a resilience and you become task-focused," Raravula said.
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