Pair thank lucky stars after collision with freighter

By ANNE BESTON

An American couple on a world cruise know they are lucky to be alive after a run-in with a freighter.

The collision happened about 12 nautical miles northeast of Needles Point, on the northern tip of Great Barrier Island, about 6 pm on Monday when skipper Jordan Bigel was making a satellite phone call to a friend below decks while his wife was sleeping and his 5-year-old son, Jonah, was in his hammock-bed.

"I thought, 'Damn, we have hit a rock', but there were no rocks on the chart.

"I looked out and there she was scraping past my boat."

The couple's 15m ketch, which they have called home since leaving Seattle in August on their round-the-world trip, had been hit by the freighter front on.

Although 1.5m of the yacht's bow platform was ripped off in the collision the couple are grateful for their lives.

"Two seconds earlier and it would have cut us in half and killed my son instantly," 41-year-old Kate Bigel said.

"We were pretty lucky, we should have been sinking but we were not."

Mr Bigel said the freighter, the Southern Cross II, could not have been looking to have missed the ketch's 15m mast and its mainsail.

Although he has a sore nose where his head slammed into the side of the yacht, the family were otherwise unhurt.

They left the Bay of Islands the morning of the collision heading for Tauranga where they planned to live for the next few months before sailing on to Fiji and Australia.

They have been amazed by the help from local sailors on nearby Great Barrier Island, who escorted them into Nagle Cove on the western side of the island.

The freighter captain, who was taking the ship to Tonga, also did everything he could to make sure the family were safe. He stopped his vessel and called for help from nearby boats.

But the incident has not put the pair off their round-the-world sojourn.

"Living on land is a necessary evil. This is a lifestyle," Mr Bigel said.

The couple were interviewed by Great Barrier police, and the Maritime Safety Authority is investigating.