How charity voyage foundered in high seas

By WAYNE THOMPSON

The Ruamano, all gleaming 43ft of kauri, set sail from the National Maritime Museum on Boxing Day heading for 2330 nautical miles of adventure and education.

The 75-year-old launch was in perfect condition, her crew happy and excited as they undertook a good luck loop under the Harbour Bridge to Herne Bay before heading out to the Hauraki Gulf.

The idea was simple: the voyage would be a perfect meld of history and health.

The Ruamano would re-create her maiden voyage when she set sail, fresh from the famed Collings and Bell yard in St Marys Bay, on Christmas Day 1925 to circumnavigate the country.

Along the way she would raise money for people recovering from heart attacks. It would be the Ruamano 2000 Hearts Cruise-Aid.

The idea had come to the boat's owner, furniture maker Sefton Powrie, and the retiring medical director of the National Heart Foundation, Boyd Swinburn, over a late-night rum.

Dr Swinburn was due to leave for a new job in Australia after resigning from the University of Auckland Medical School.

Also on board would be Stephen Blackwell, great-grandson of the original owner, Alf Court.

Mr Blackwell had another reason for being on board. Aged 40, he has had two heart valve replacements.

The first leg was uneventful. The vessel sheltered at North Cape for four days waiting for a front to pass and the weather and seas to improve so it could make the run down the west coast to New Plymouth.

As they rode out the bad weather, the crew of five received forecasts by fax and talked to Kaitaia and Russell Marine Radio.

At 6 am on December 30, the Ruamano made its move around Cape Reinga to the Tasman Sea but almost immediately pulled back because the sea was too rough.

At 1 pm the crew found the sea had settled and conditions for the run down the coast looked good.

Some time that evening, though, the seas again began to build. All on board the Ruamano spent an anxious night as high swells limited visibility.

The outlook seemed worse. A new front was coming up from the South Island and was more intense than the forecasts had predicted.

Dr Swinburn says: "The part between North Cape and New Plymouth was the riskiest part of the journey because we had to go so far offshore without shelter. The rest of the trip legs were short hops."

As the seas mounted, some on board became violently sea-sick.

Dr Swinburn took the bridge, often steering the diesel-powered boat, while Mr Powrie looked after the engine and refuelling.

As New Year's Eve wore on, the seas became heavier. The boat was languishing in swells of up to 6m in winds of 35 to 45 knots.

The Ruamano, with its long foredeck, short stern and narrow beam, was kept up into the waves, even though that course was taking them further and further from the coast.

To turn the boat was to risk being capsized.

Dr Swinburn says: "We were getting waves breaking over the back of the boat and were in danger of capsizing her.

"The old girl was holding up well but the seas were getting worse. We weren't going anywhere except to Australia - slowly."

At 6 am on December 31, skipper Powrie called Auckland Marine Radio and talked about the options for getting the crew taken off.

A helicopter lift was ruled out because of the distance.

The Maritime Safety Authority logged another call from Mr Powrie at 4.20 pm, when the vessel was 60 nautical miles west of Onehunga.

He reported making slow progress in heavy seas. All five crew were wearing lifejackets, the vessel had put out a drogue - a sea anchor to slow and steady the vessel.

There was enough diesel for 30 hours' steaming.

But an hour later, he again contacted shore. According to the centre's director, Russell Kilvington, he discussed the possibility of putting out an official distress call.

At 7.25 pm, Mr Powrie told the centre he was concerned that darkness was falling, the seas were confused, and that the vessel could be capsized by unseen waves. He issued a mayday.

Maritime authorities suggested making a run for the Port of Onehunga. But Mr Kilvington said the crew were convinced it would be dangerous to try to turn the vessel around in such confused seas.

The commodore of the Manukau Volunteer Coastguard, Paul Connon, said the west coast seas were "not pleasant at all" and that coming into the Port of Onehunga through the bar of the Manukau Harbour would have been difficult.

"It would be like being in a washing machine of three-to-four-metre-high waves."

Mr Kilvington said the vessel was not in a life-threatening situation. It appeared the crew had simply had enough and lack of experience might have been a factor.

"They bit off a bit more than they could chew."

The immediate problem was how to take the crew off. The Waverley, a former English lifeboat, run by the Raglan Sea Rescue Volunteer Group, was capable of reaching the Ruamano.

But it would not have reached the vessel until 6.30 yesterday morning.

Closer was a Korean log carrier, heading up the coast after leaving Port Chalmers days earlier on a run to its home port of Inchon.

At 4 am, it located the Ruamano, 100 nautical miles west of Raglan.

The rescue had its moments as well. Cargo nets were slung over the ship's side for the crew to scramble up when they jumped off the launch.

Mr Blackwell jumped but lost his grip on the thick rope netting and fell between the two vessels. One of the Korean crew threw him a lifebelt on a rope and and hauled him over the side of the ship.

When it came to the turn of skipper Sefton Powrie, he drove the launch into the side of the ship, jumped out through an opening in the Ruamano's flying bridge and leaped for the rescue net.

Because the crew of the Ruamano had called for assistance they must stay on board the 176m rescue ship, the New Laurel, until it reaches its destination.

It expects to reach South Korea on January 18.

The crew cannot be taken by helicopter from the Korean ship because none of the commercial helicopter firms in the area has a winch.

The WestpacTrust rescue helicopter has a winch but does not undertake commercial work.

On shore, Shelley Green spoke to her husband, John, another crew member, twice yesterday and said he was tired and "still in a bit of shock."

"Going to Korea is not the most wonderful thing that could happen but the other option is at the bottom of the sea."

Mrs Green said her husband, a 50-year-old commercial sales broker for Colliers Jardine, was an experienced boatie.

A holiday planned for the new year would have to be put on hold.

"I'm not sure what I am going to do ... it's been a terrible day. It's not a very good start to the new year."

Robyn Reynolds did not believe her husband, Malcolm, when he rang at 5.45 am yesterday to tell her what had happened.

"I said, 'Malcolm, you're in New Plymouth,' then I realised there was the echo down the line."

Mrs Reynolds said her 50-year-old husband, a building contractor, was quiet and subdued but happy to be on board the ship.

An experienced west coast mariner, Lindsay Wright, was to have joined the Ruamano crew at New Plymouth for the leg to Westport, which was the most dangerous.

Yesterday afternoon, a spotter plane went out from Auckland to find the launch but had no luck.

She is somewhere off the west coast, her engine possibly still running, still wallowing in seas that had reduced during the day.