Kāpiti rescue: Divers swim over an hour to deserted island

The drama unfolded after two divers became separated from their boat off the Kāpiti Coast. Photo / 123RF

By Bill Hickman of RNZ

• Two divers were plucked from Fisherman’s Island, off the Kāpiti Coast, after they became separated from their tender vessel on Sunday evening.
• The alarm was raised when the divers failed to surface near their boat about 5pm and the men’s partners called police.
• The men swam for over an hour in swirling currents to make it to the island.
• Westpac Rescue Helicopter spotted a fire that had been lit with matches in the men’s waterproof emergency survival kit.
• They were picked up by Coastguard just after 7pm.

The skipper of a Coastguard boat who rescued two divers after they became separated from their boat in waters near Kāpiti, north of Wellington, says the scenario is the stuff of nautical nightmares.

The divers were dragged south in swift currents, but managed to swim to a nearby island and even had provisions to light a fire, alerting the Westpac Rescue Helicopter to their location.

Coastguard skipper Mark Davidson told Checkpoint police were alerted by the diver’s partners – who were waiting on the diver’s boat – that they had lost contact with the men about 5pm on Sunday.

“Finding a boat out here for us is easy. We’ve got radar, boats are big and generally you can plot where you know they may be.

“But for divers, there are a number of things that can happen when they’re underwater. They can become disorientated or the tides are running quicker than they suspect.

“In this case, it was an outgoing tide, which runs quite strong out here.

“So you’ve then got a northerly wind that’s pushing towards the south and then you’ve got a reasonably strong current pushing towards the south as well.

“It makes it pretty difficult.”

Davidson said the divers surfaced and realised they had been pushed far from their support vessel.

They made the call to swim for more than an hour to Motungārara, or Fisherman’s Island.

“They tried to contact their two offsiders on the boat. But the distance was growing [and] the light was starting to dim.

“They had to make a decision themselves to self-rescue, which they did. They’re going against a very strong tide here, which swirls around those islands. So they would have been working hard.”

Davidson said the men were well-equipped with high-quality gear, buoyancy aids and personal rescue kits, which included the matches they used to light a fire once ashore.

“Worst-case scenario for us was that they’d washed past the islands and were heading south. So we were set up to do a long, creeping line search orientating south and - given the conditions - we could have expected them probably to float for four nautical miles (7.5km), which is a long way.

“We were well-assisted by the Westpac Rescue Helicopter out of Wellington. They spotted the fire. They couldn’t get down low to see but - from our local knowledge - we knew that there was nobody else on that island so it had to be the divers,” Davidson said.

Once found, the men were well and in good spirits, he said.

“They were more interested and concerned about their girlfriends in the tender boat, because they knew the girls would be worried sick about them.

“But physically, they were in terrific shape because they had good gear and they’d looked after themselves.”

Davidson said he was grateful for the work of the police, Westpac Rescue Helicopter and Coastguard volunteers - both at sea and on land - who all came together for a great result.

- RNZ