Piha Surf Life Saver Jonathan Webber tells how to stay safe in the water this summer. Video / Michael Craig
The six-metre boat he was safely aboard moments earlier had just abruptly overturned. Treacherous waves were pushing him down, and Wayne Forsyth wasn't sure he was going to survive.
"It was touch and go there for a while," he admitted of the Tuesday morning ordeal at Raglan's bar crossing. "I didn't think I was going to make it, to be honest.
"It makes you look at life differently."
Forsyth and the two others who were thrown from the capsized vessel did survive, thanks to what Coastguard New Zealand has described as a by-the-book safety plan - and a fair bit of luck to boot.
"These guys, from all accounts, did everything that they should have done," said Raglan Volunteer Coastguard president Wally Hawken.
Rescuers on the scene after the boat was tipped over on the Raglan Bar. Photo / Morgan Coster
That included wearing life jackets and filing a report with the Coastguard before crossing the bar, which resulted in the volunteer squad going out to look for the trio when they didn't file a follow-up report confirming they'd safely crossed.
"There were ticks in the box all along," Hawken said.
When the trio set out Tuesday morning, the forecast called for good weather and they expected flat water. The plan was to check cray pots then spend the rest of the morning fishing.
Skipper Robert Kim Brown, a 65-year-old with decades of boating experience and known to everyone as "Brownie", said they had just "come off a pretty good wave" while crossing the bar around 9am when the trouble happened.
The boat (left) is towed into Raglan Harbour after capsizing on the bar at Raglan. Photo / Supplied
"We came down and then no power - nothing. The motor stalled," he recalled.
He tried to restart the boat, which he owns with his son, but the elements were unforgiving and within roughly 10 seconds it was too late.
"The second wave got us and it was over - we were in the drink," he said. "It flipped us over."
A day later, as he spoke to the Herald, he thought aloud about "what goes through your head when you're underwater". His biggest worry, he said, was the safety of his crewmates.
As the others resurfaced, he shouted reassurances to them: "Just stay with the boat. We'll be alright."
But he was getting dragged away from the boat by the outgoing tide and had to fight his way back.
After the initial shock, they were all able to make their way to the side of the overturned boat.
The damaged interior of a boat. Photo / Supplied
"We were just clinging to the boat for dear life," Forsyth recalled.
The men recalled seeing a jetskier "way in the distance". They'd wave at him trying to get his attention, and then he'd disappear from view, and they'd resume their waving when he reappeared.
Eventually, they were spotted.
"He thought we were his mates," Brown recalled, explaining that the jet skier had been expecting to meet another jet skier on the water and was surprised when he realised who had been waving at him.
"He was really good," Brown said, explaining that the stranger turned out to be a former Surf Life Saving volunteer.
Coastguard New Zealand has also effusively praised the jet skier, who set off his own personal locator beacon to let authorities know exactly where to find the boaties.
"Big thanks to the member of the public on the yellow jet ski!" the Coastguard posted on social media in a recap of the rescue. "This story has a happy ending and there's a Good Boatie Award due here!"
The stranger took Brown's passengers back to shore while Brown stayed with his vessel. By the time the jet skier returned, the Raglan Volunteer Coastguard and the local Surf Lifesaving Club had also arrived.
"We're all very lucky," Forsyth said of how the potential disaster turned out, with all three men home with their families a short time later.
"It could have been a lot worse. If it wasn't for our lifejackets I don't think we'd be here today."
The boat has been hauled back to land. Not surprisingly, it's missing quite a few items like the windscreen and multiple fishing rods. It's now sitting at a mechanic's shop, as Brown waits to see if the insurance company deems it a write-off or if he can take it out to sea again in the near future.
He hopes for the latter.
"I've gone over bigger waves than that in the bar, but when you've got no motor you're dead in the water," he said of Tuesday's harrowing events, describing them as "just one of those things".
