Wave from nowhere the suspect in capsize

A victim of the sinking is taken from the Lion Foundation rescue helicopter to a police vehicle at Bluff yesterday. Picture / Otago Daily Times

The reason a large fishing vessel built to handle most conditions in Foveaux Strait rolled could not be explained yesterday, but people in Bluff were talking about a "freak wave".

A charter boat operator, who knew the Topi family but declined to be named, said conditions in the strait were "not too bad" on Saturday.

"It was blowing about 25 to 30 knots, westerly. That's nothing unusual down here. The swell was sloppy and uncomfortable, a couple of metres at times."

Alice Leigh, a neighbour of Colin Topi, said the township was talking about a "freak wave" that had capsized the boat.

"They reckon it was calm when they started out but all of a sudden the sea came up. A freak wave came crashing through the wheelhouse, flooding everything and drowning them, and the boat just flipped. It's a big boat."

In Bluff yesterday, the seas were rumoured to have topped 5m when the boat got into trouble.

Whatever caused the tragedy, once the boat capsized there was little time for those on board to get to safety. Life expectancy in the 12C waters of Foveaux Strait is about five hours.

The last disaster in the strait happened in August 1998 when a Cessna 402 carrying 10 people crashed after running out of fuel.

For those who survived that tragedy, the thing that stood out the most was the terrible cold.

The pilot, Robin Andrews, managed to land the plane in the water and everyone escaped safety, although only half of the passengers got lifejackets on before they fled the sinking plane into 10C water.

Because of confusion about where the crash occurred it was another 50 minutes before rescuers arrived.

In that time the pilot, three adults and a child had succumbed to the cold.

Survivor Brian McEwan, who died this year after an unrelated short illness, said the wait to be rescued was "very, very long and cold".

Briton John Chisholm tried desperately to hold on to his three children. He eventually let go of the body of his 7-year-old son, Russell, to focus on keeping his other children alive.

Rescuers found Mr Chisholm's father, Adam, in a critical condition, but he survived.