A sailor issued a mayday call just off Whangarei Harbour after a motor cut out and high winds threatened to push the craft on to rocks.
The Circo Whangarei Coastguard team were dispatched from Marsden Cove to the 52ft catamaran near Smugglers Cove about 11am yesterday.
Coastguard president Brian Whimp said the solo sailor was becoming concerned as the winds were reaching 35 knots. When Coastguard reached the vessel, the sailor had managed to make it to the entrance of the harbour.
Climate crisis talk
A United States professor is giving a talk in Whangarei this month on what he says is an abrupt climate crisis which is set to decimate the Earth's natural habitats.
Professor emeritus Guy McPherson is a teacher of natural resources, ecology and evolutionary biology, who taught and conducted research at the University of Arizona for 20 years before leaving the university in 2009.
Prof McPherson says loss of habitat through climate change poses the single most serious threat to the survival of the planet.
He will talk at In Step Dance Studio, Reyburn House Lane, from 1.30pm on November 26. Entry is free, but koha is appreciated.
Alien Weaponry 'ones to watch'
Waipu band Alien Weaponry is one of New Zealand's top 10 hard rock and metal bands, according to British heavy weight music rag Metal Hammer.
Comprising Lewis de Jong, 14 (guitar/vocals), brother Henry, 16 (drums), and Ethan Trembath, 14 (bass), Alien Weaponry this year won both the Smokefree Rockquest and Pacifica Beats, the only band ever to win both and the first metal band to win the latter.
Metal Hammer listed the schoolboy band alongside Beastwars, Devilskin, Ulcerate, Diocletian, 8 Foot Sativa, Dawn of Azazel, Set on End, Heavy Metal Ninjas and Sinistrous Diabolus.
Alien Weaponry came with the tag "the ones to watch".