'Ghost ship' puzzles rescuers

[Elly]

The table was set. Laptop screens flickered in the cabin and mobile phones and sunglasses were on the chart table in front of the empty chairs. But there was no crew.

“It’s almost like they just stepped off the boat,” said Trevor Wilson, pilot of the rescue helicopter sent to investigate after the catamaran was spotted drifting off the Queensland coast.

The discovery of the Kaz 11 without her three-man crew has mystified Australian rescue teams. Other than a ripped sail, everything seemed perfectly normal. The engine idled in neutral and the marine radio was on. Three wallets were on the table.

Her emergency equipment, including life jackets and the emergency locator beacon, appeared not to have been touched. The dinghy was still lashed to the hull.

By late yesterday 12 aircraft and four vessels were searching 4,000sq nautical miles for the three men who set out on Sunday from Airlie Beach in North Queensland. An Australian Army Black Hawk helicopter was expected to join the search today.

The missing yachtsmen were named locally as Derek Batten, 56, the skipper, and his neighbours Peter and James Tunstead, brothers aged 69 and 63, from Perth, Western Australia. Police would not confirm their identities.

The men bought the 40ft catamaran at Airlie Beach last week and planned to sail north and west around Australia’s vast northern coast to the other side of the continent.

Keryn Grey, James Tunstead’s daughter, said that the family was hoping that the men were in a dinghy and that the catamaran drifted away. “We are hoping that they forgot to anchor it \ and it’s drifted off, the three idiots, and \ not been able to get back to it,” she said.

Ms Grey said that the trip was supposed to take six to eight weeks. “They were just going to stop every night, anchor close to shore all the way back around the top and down the coast,” she said. “It was going to be their trip of a lifetime.”

The Kaz 11 was spotted by a coastal patrol aircraft on Wednesday 200km (125 miles) north of her departure point, drifting in calm seas. Because the patrol could not make radio contact with the catamaran or see anybody aboard, a rescue helicopter was sent out on Thursday and a crewman winched down.

By chance, a television crew from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation was on the helicopter making a documentary about the rescuers’ work. Their footage was broadcast last night. The director, Jan Catoni, said: “There was concern for the safety of the rescue officer who was winched down because he was boarding a vessel by himself. We had no sense of what he might find.”

Footage shows him emerging from the cabin eventually with his arms outstretched and palms turned upward to indicate that nobody was aboard.

John Hall, a spokesman for the Queensland sea rescue service, said: “It was a little eerie because all the personal effects of the crew were still there. There were sunglasses on the table, two laptop computers set up and running. And the table had obviously been prepared for a meal.”

Last night the catamaran was being compared with the Mary Celeste, the brig found drifting off Portugal in 1872. The ship was in good condition and the disappearance of her ten crew and passengers has never been explained.

This time around, rescuers will have more clues to work on. The Queensland rescue organisation hopes that information stored within the Global Positioning System, phones and computers will make it possible to plot the movements of the Kaz 11 after she left Airlie Beach. This would enable them to narrow the search area.

The weather conditions at the time of departure from Airlie Beach on Sunday were poor and deteriorating. The wind was 30 knots and the waves were rising.

However, Greg Connor, a forecaster with the Bureau of Meteorology, said that the men would have faced moderate southeasterly winds of about 35 kph (22mph), typical weather for this time of year.

“It would have been excellent sailing conditions,” he said. “There’s no reason to believe this is a weather-related incident.”

There were no plausible theories last night to explain why the crew might have disappeared.

www.smh.com.au/news/national/mystery-of-kaz-iis-missing-crew/2007/04/20/1176697042357.html

[mcnass]

Something like that happened many years ago. The crew left the boat, they just jumped out for swimming. Unfortunately they did not think about putting out a ladder. They had no chance to get back into the boat...

[Elly]

Maybe that will be the case some simple explanation, still no sign of anyone or anything, they have called off the search, though the families seemingly have organised a private search to start.

[smudger]

Still the whole thing is very strange , hope they find the crew.

[Elly]

Second ghost ship found off Queensland coast
April 23, 2007



Another unmanned vessel has been discovered floating off the coast of Queensland.

The six-metre barnacle-encrusted fibreglass boat, which was yesterday spotted in waters off the Sunshine Coast, is the second mystery vessel to be found in Queensland waters in less than a week.

Fisherman spotted the second boat about 30km off the coast of Caloundra.

The boat was found upturned and adrift, with the keys still in the ignition and a tank full of fuel.

Fishing gear and scuba diving equipment were retrieved from the vessel and both outboard motors were still intact.

Police are now searching for the owners of the boat, which is registered in Noumea.

The boat is believed to have been adrift for several months, and authorities believe it may have simply broken free from its moorings.

The discovery comes just one day after authorities called off the search for three men missing from a yacht found unmanned and adrift last Wednesday about 160km off Townsville.

The three crew members - skipper Derek Batten, 56, and brothers Peter and James Tunstead, aged 69 and 63, all from Perth - went missing some time after their 9.8-metre catamaran, KAZ II, left Shute Harbour at Airlie Beach in the Whitsundays the previous weekend.

Authorities called off the search yesterday, but the trio's family members have refused to give up hope and spent today unsuccessfully searching Airlie Beach and its surrounding islands.

There is a range of theories about what happened to the men.

One is that they fell overboard in rough seas.

Another is that another vessel came alongside and they boarded it, either willingly or unwillingly, as if they had been attacked by pirates.

Family members are hopeful the trio managed to swim to a nearby island and are awaiting rescue.

"That's our hope. That's where we're going to concentrate today," James Tunstead's son Shane Webber told ABC radio.

"Maybe they've all got knocked over by the boom, or something happened at the back of the boat when they were fishing because we know they were fishing at the time by video footage we've seen from the Townsville police.

"That's about the only theories we can come up with at the moment."

AAP

[Elly]

Ghost ship skipper 'somewhere dark'

By Christine Flatley
April 24, 2007 03:43pm


Ghost ship crewman relatives feel in spiritual contact
They believe there may have been a kidnapping
Authorities criticised for calling off search

RELATIVES of the skipper of a mystery yacht found off the coast of north Queensland believe they have a spiritual link with the missing man, that he may have been kidnapped and is still alive.

Hope Himing, niece of Derek Batten, 56, said today there were many unusual circumstances surrounding the yacht, which was found off the coast of Townsville last Wednesday.

Ms Himing said she and her mother had both felt spiritual contact from Derek, whom they believed was still alive but fighting for his life.

"My mum and I are both Spiritualists. My mum's had a really strong feeling from Des that he's somewhere dark and he can't see and I don't feel that he's dead either," Ms Himing said.

"I don't think he's got a lot left in him but I actually don't think he's dead, and so everything we can do to get (people) out there looking again is a huge thing."

Ms Hinning believes the unusal circumstances of the floating ship suggest foul play.

Emergency service crews found the engine running, computers turned on, food on the table and the GPS system operating but no sign of the boat's crew.

"It just doesn't all add up," Ms Himing said.

"If it was bad weather why would their fishing line be out?

"Why would their clothes be piled up (and) if it was that bad that it would have knocked three experienced sailors off, why wouldn't they have put on their life-jackets?

"It just doesn't add up for us."

Ms Himing said her family dismissed police suggestions that her uncle – known to the family as "Des" – and his crew members – brothers Peter and James Tunstead, aged 69 and 63, all from Perth – were washed overboard in bad weather.

She said she strongly believed that the 9.8m catamaran, KAZ II, was boarded, and the trio may have been kidnapped.

"The fenders were out on their yacht, and the only reason you ever put them out is when another boat comes aside or if you come to rest against a wharf," she said.

"It looks like they've been boarded."

Ms Himing said she holds grave fears for the trio's safety, but believes they are still alive.

She said the families would continue to search Airlie Beach and the surrounding islands until they had closure.



Ms Himing said the families of all three crew members felt that authorities called off the search too quickly, and said James Tunstead's son, Shane Webber, had already told them he would continue his own search until he found something.

"The police have dropped interest very quickly and dropped the search ... we feel hugely let down about this," Ms Himing said.

"They've spent days longer looking for other people in situations like this, so why have they called this one off so quickly?"

Ms Himing said the lack of closure was the most painful part of the situation.

"The hardest thing for us now is waiting and not knowing," she said.

"You can deal with a bad accident (where) they've passed away because you know, but when you don't, and to have so many questions hanging over it... it's very difficult."

Queensland police said in a statement last night they would continue to keep "a watchful eye" for the three missing men.

"Despite the search being officially suspended, a Queensland Police Service aircraft will continue to monitor in an effort to locate the bodies of the missing three men," the statement said.

But police said medical advice was that the chances of survival would be "highly unlikely".

[andi]

Very strange that incident.