Ears wide open for distress calls

Boaties' welfare is the aim of radio operator Barry Groom.

Barry Groom reckons he's been directly involved in more than 300 marine rescues since he and wife Lynette set up Waikuku Marine Radio back in 1973.

But perhaps none has been so poignant and meaningful to him as the near-miraculous rescue last week of his long-time friend, Lyttelton yachtsman and former fishing boat skipper Bruce Cox.

Mr Cox and fiancee Heloise Kortekaas were plucked from their dismasted 9.7m sloop Janette Gay about 750km northeast of the Chatham Islands. The rescue ended a textbook operation involving Air Force Orions, two merchant ships, the Wellington-based Westpac rescue helicopter and a Lifeflight air ambulance.

Mr Cox befriended Mr Groom during radio watches when he took a tug and barge from Lyttelton to the Iraqi Gulf during the first Gulf War in 1991.

On the ill-fated Janette Gay trip, Mr Cox left Lyttelton on September 21 with Ms Kortekaas, bound for the Cook Islands and an extended sailing and diving holiday. They encountered six storms before their steel yacht rolled last Sunday, losing its mast and leaving them fighting for their lives in huge swells, with winds gusting to 70 knots. Mr Cox suffered severe injuries as he battled to keep his craft afloat.

A first attempt to rescue the pair by the 5000-tonne cargo ship Maunakea was abandoned after its master became concerned for the safety of his ship and crew. After a terrifying four-day battle for survival Mr Cox and Ms Kortekaas were picked up by the 45,000-tonne P&O Nedlloyd Encounter. A helicopter took them to the Chatham Islands, where an air ambulance took them back to Christchurch.

Mr Cox is recovering now in Christchurch Hospital. Ms Kortekaas escaped relatively unscathed apart from bruising.

Mr Groom agreed it was a textbook rescue, saying his friends were extremely fortunate to have survived a horrendous ordeal.

He had been talking to the pair until Saturday when they encountered problems with their radio in the severe battering - they could only transmit, not receive.

"Up until then I was only getting about four hours' sleep a night," said Mr Groom.

"I was up and down the different frequencies, trying to get more information on the Janette Gay."

As part of the Waikuku Marine Radio service, Mr Groom broadcasts a weather report every morning, taking information from three weather charts he gets daily from the Maritime Safety Authority.

He compared the storm that finally crippled the Janette Gay with the so-called "weather bomb" that destroyed the Lyttelton Marina on October 12, 2000, causing millions of dollars in damage.

"There was a false sense of security about the latest storm," Mr Groom said.

Mr Cox had just turned further away from the New Zealand coastline to make a run for the Cooks.

"It was a beautiful day ... light northeasterlies, sunny ... everything was right," Mr Groom said. "Then all of a sudden, bang. A low pressure system came through like a rocket on a rail. From there it was all downhill.

"I knew when Heloise came up on radio [with a Mayday emergency call] that something had happened to Bruce. I didn't know what and she didn't say. I couldn't ask because their radio could only transmit."

Mr Cox and Ms Kortekaas would have had no indication of what was to come, he said.

"It came through that quickly."

The swells of up to 16m and a screaming 60-knot gale were "unbelievable" conditions, Mr Groom said.

"If it were not for the capabilities of Bruce and Heloise, they'd have lost the boat and themselves."

Mr Groom shrugged off the reported $1 million-plus cost of the rescue exercise, saying you could not put a price on life.

"Sea rescues don't come cheap anywhere. What's the price of a life? There were two lives out there."

From Waikuku, he and Mrs Groom provide a "labour of love" service to mariners throughout the South Pacific. They keep in touch, offer encouragement in troubled times and alert the authorities the second an emergency is detected.

They operate without any Government financial help and exist virtually on a handful of donations that may or may not trickle in.

Mr Groom, a former civil engineer and builder who "retired" after losing several fingers in a "mistake" with a circular saw, fears for the future of his service. He turns 75 in December, with no immediate successor appearing willing to make the huge commitment involved.

He spoke to "around 11,000 or 12,000 people" during the summer season and the couple receive between 3000 and 6000 telephone calls a year.

Mr Groom reckoned it cost between $5000 and $6000 a year to keep Waikuku Marine Radio on air.

He has no plans to quit, but realises he cannot continue forever.

"I can't stop. No one will take it over."

- NZPA