{"id":3868,"date":"2012-11-09T02:25:39","date_gmt":"2012-11-09T05:25:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bwsailing.com\/news\/?p=951"},"modified":"2012-11-09T02:25:39","modified_gmt":"2012-11-09T05:25:39","slug":"stricken-sailors-in-dramatic-rescue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/bw\/stricken-sailors-in-dramatic-rescue\/","title":{"rendered":"Stricken Sailors in Dramatic Rescue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two people trapped on a stricken yacht 1260km (780 miles) northwest of New Zealand\"\"<\/a> have been rescued by a cargo ship this morning.<\/p>\n

Auckland woman Tania Davies, 43, and Australian-based Briton Steve Jones, 52, were rescued from their damaged yacht Windigo<\/em> and are now safely aboard the cargo ship Chengtu<\/em> after a dramatic rescue just before 9am.<\/p>\n

They both suffered mild to moderate head injuries after their yacht rolled after two days after leaving Tonga.<\/p>\n

Mr. Jones has also suffered a back injury. However, none of their injuries are believed to be serious.<\/p>\n

Search and Rescue Mission Coordinator Keith Allen from the Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC) paid tribute to the efforts of the Chengtu<\/em>, the yacht Adventure Bound<\/em> which assisted the rescue overnight, and the Royal New Zealand Air Force, which provided a P3-Orion that made three trips to the stricken yacht, providing the only communications link. A French naval plane also made two trips from Noumea to the scene.<\/p>\n

“This is the outcome we have been working towards since the emergency beacon was activated on Wednesday afternoon.”<\/p>\n

“It is the result of an excellent coordinated effort involving the RNZAF, which provided a link for the two people on the Windigo<\/em> when there was no other means of contact, and the Navy, and I would also like to express my appreciation to the captain of the Chengtu<\/em> and the crew of the Adventure Bound<\/em> for their efforts.”<\/p>\n

The pair’s medical conditions will be assessed aboard the Chengtu<\/em>, which is heading south to meet Navy vessel HMNZS Otago<\/em> late this afternoon.<\/p>\n

Earlier, the couple were said to be “tired and scared” on their damaged yacht Windigo<\/em>, which was sinking 1260km from New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Rescuers were racing to save the pair after their sinking yacht rolled in 10m seas off Tonga during a home-coming voyage to Auckland.<\/p>\n

Davies, 43, and Jones, 52, were still facing high seas and 75km\/h winds last night on board their severely damaged 11.6m (38 feet) yacht, Windigo<\/em>.<\/p>\n

“They’re very tired and obviously pretty scared,” senior search and rescue officer Keith Allen of the Rescue Co-ordination Centre said late yesterday.<\/p>\n

“We’ve spoken to family in the UK and the Auckland region and … obviously they fear what’s happening but also [feel] relief something is being done.”<\/p>\n

Ms. Davies and Mr. Jones wrote posts on their Facebook page last month about being in Tonga, and spoke to friends of their plans to travel to Auckland.<\/p>\n

“Yippee in Tonga,” they said in a post on October 16.<\/p>\n

On October 31, they wrote a post to a friend: “See you soon in Akl.”<\/p>\n

The friend replied: “Safe journey on your final stage.”<\/p>\n

Yesterday, a friend posted on their Facebook page: “Praying for you Steve and Tanya [sic], stay strong xx.”<\/p>\n

Courtesy of www.nzherald.co.nz<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two people trapped on a stricken yacht 1260km (780 miles) northwest of New Zealand have been rescued by a cargo ship this morning. Auckland woman Tania […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cruising-news","category-news-and-notes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/bw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/bw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/bw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/bw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/bw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/bw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3868\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/bw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/bw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/bw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}