The Grey River. Photo / Mark Mitchell
A fishing boat that became wedged on a narrow strip of rocks in the middle of the Grey River overnight was floated off safely on the high tide late this morning.
Frank Benzie was heading out to sea in wooden-hulled Seafury about 1am, when it was blown onto the half-tide
rockwall, directly opposite the entrance to the Blaketown Lagoon.
"I was heading out, a bigger boat was coming in, I spun around to give the other boat more room and a gust of wind pushed my boat up on to the rocks," he said this morning from the stranded vessel.
"There would have been plenty of room if I hadn't turned, but I thought I was doing the right thing. If it hadn't been so windy it would have been okay (but) there was a squall at the wrong time. I've got no one else to blame but myself," he said.
Mr Benzie said today's mishap was the worst experience in his 21 years of fishing out of the Greymouth port.
