Pair at sea for 10 years rescued from ‘waves the size of buildings’

A New South Wales Police vessel approaches the stricken yacht to rescue an Irish and a French national some 400kms of the New South Wales coast. AFP

SYDNEY // An Irishman and a French woman on Thursday told of “waves the size of buildings” after being rescued from a terrifying ordeal when their yacht capsized in wild weather off Australia.

Nick Dwyer, 55, and Barbara Heftman, 44, were sailing from New Zealand to Sydney as part of a years-long circumnavigation of the globe when disaster struck.

Treacherous seas broke their rudder then rolled their 12-metre boat, forcing them to activate an emergency beacon on Tuesday.

A New South Wales police vessel responded, battling six-metre swells and gale force winds on a 13-hour voyage to reach the yacht and safely haul the pair on board.

“We encountered enormous seas, waves the size of buildings coming at you constantly, winds that you can’t stand up in, seas breaking, whiteness everywhere,” Mr Dwyer told reporters after abandoning ship and arriving in Sydney late on Wednesday.

“We weren’t sure whether we were going to be rolled again and each time a wave hit, we thought ‘is the one that’s going to take us?’

“It wasn’t really until the low (pressure system) hit us and we got capsized that we felt we really couldn’t survive this one without assistance.”

He added that it was the worst weather they had ever encountered on their decade-long global adventure, calling their rescuers “absolute heroes”.

Police Sergeant Paul Farquharson told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation the couple was overjoyed to see the rescue team.

“They’d been bobbing around on a 40-foot boat for the last four days and spent the last 10 years at sea so to hop on board our boat was a bit of a luxury for them,” he said.

* Agence France-Presse