It was the opposite of what you'd call smooth sailing. For more than 24 hours, two people holed up in a yacht that was stranded more than 100 miles off the coast of Australia as the boat took on water and was battered by massive waves. The 48-year-old woman and 60-year-old man were "fine" when they were finally rescued Tuesday morning local time, said Chief Inspector Anthony Brazzill of New South Wales Police Marine Area Command, per NBC News. "But the conditions were terrible." He told the Guardian the 62-foot racing yacht, Spirit of Mateship, "was running away from us as we were chasing it down the coast."
The pair had activated a distress beacon around 1pm local time Monday due to a mechanical failure. The yacht had lost a rudder and was taking on water some 115 miles off the coast of NSW while drifting further from shore, police said, per the Independent. A rescue helicopter arrived two hours later, but was unable to winch the crew members up due to the extreme conditions, per NBC. Conditions were so poor that another rescue couldn't be attempted until the following morning. This time, rescuers arrived on a police patrol boat, to which the man and woman had to jump while an accompanying Navy ship attempted to block the wind. They were safely on board by 7:25am local time, according to a statement.
The pair had been unable to bring down the yacht's sail, which made the rescue "extremely challenging," Brazzill said, per the Guardian. "They tell us they did check the weather conditions, but you know, we've had gale force warnings," Brazzill added, per NBC. He described 70mph winds and waves almost 20 feet tall, per the Independent. As he spoke to reporters in Sydney, he noted the two "uninjured" crew members, who likely got little sleep during their ordeal, were "sound asleep" aboard the rescue boat. The yacht—which "has raced in multiple Sydney to Hobart yacht races," per News.com.au—had to be abandoned some 185 miles east of the NSW coast, he added. (More Australia stories.)
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