[Abbie]

From today's news in NZ- hopefully all is OK and they are found safe and sound.

An aircraft is to carry out a search for a ship which was due to arrive in New Zealand on Saturday.
The 92ft schooner Alvei left Port Vila in Vanuatu with nine people onboard more than three weeks ago. The Alvei is described as a learning vessel, which gives travellers the experience of sailing on a traditional ship. Its crew and passengers are believed to be aged between 27 and 66 and include Australians, Americans, a New Zealander and an Englishman.
Rescue Coordination Centre spokesman Mike Roberts says the centre has had no response to broadcasts of radio calls within the search region. Alvei is believed to be fitted with a VHF and HF Radio as well as a distress beacon.
Mr Roberts says there is enough concern to warrant a search. Mr Roberts says a plane began searching a route between Opua and Norfolk Island at midday.
A Police Liaison Officer from Wellington is starting to contact family members.

[MMNETSEA]

Here is the Website of the Schooner Alvei :-

http://www.alvei.de/index.htm

[Abbie]

This morning's update

An Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion will take off from Whenuapai airbase at 7am to join in the search for an overdue sailing ship.

The schooner Alvei, carrying nine people, was due to arrive in the Bay of Islands from Vanuatu on 1 December.
An aerial search failed to find anything on Wednesday between the Bay of Islands and Norfolk Island and is due to resume.
The Alvei, a 28m square-rigged vessel, left Vanuatu on 13 November.
New Zealand authorities were alerted on 29 November when contact via mobile phone was lost.
A New Zealander is aboard the ship, along with three Americans, four Australians and an Englishman.
The Alvei is fitted with a distress beacon which has not been activated.

[Abbie]

Good news but sounds like a very long trip!! Maybe they need to find some better means of communication for their future trips to avoid costly searches.

Missing sailing ship found

The overdue sailing ship Alvei has been found and all aboard are safe and well.
The ship was located at 11.45am today, about 760km north of New Zealand's North Cape.
The nine people, including one New Zealander, on board are safe and the ship is expected to arrive in Opua, Northland, in eight-10 days.
Aircraft have been searching for the overdue ship since yesterday, after a concerned relative of one of the ship's crew contacted the Rescue Coordination Centre NZ (RCCNZ).
RCCNZ search and rescue mission coordinator Mike Roberts said a Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion had found the Alvei while searching an area along its intended track to New Zealand.
The Orion's crew had made radio contact with her and all on board were safe, he said.
The skipper reported that her delayed progress was because of unfavourable winds.

" RCCNZ thanks everyone who has been involved in the search, which included agencies from New Zealand, Australia and New Caledonia. This is an excellent result and a tribute to the hard work and dedication of all involved," Mr Roberts said.

[MMNETSEA]

Abbie, on Dec 6 2007, 07:14 AM, said:

Good news but sounds like a very long trip!! Maybe they need to find some better means of communication for their future trips to avoid costly searches.

Reading Newsletter 18 Vol. 1 - Alvei's Adventures in 2003 / 2004

from their website http://www.alvei.de/index.htm is very revealing !!

The Owners and Skipper of this boat have a lot to answer for.


The Gods have been kind this time !

Richard

[Abbie]

Ummm they are going to be in big trouble!!


From http://www.news.com....797-401,00.html

NEW Zealand authorities will demand to know why the crew of a schooner carrying four Australians and five others failed to tell anyone they'd be late into port, sparking a massive search.

Authorities had held fears for the group, after the three-masted topsail schooner The Alvei failed to arrive in New Zealand as planned on December 1 having sailed from Vanuatu.

Rescue Co-ordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ) said a Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion spotted The Alvei this morning, 760km north of New Zealand.

The ship's captain Evan Logan reportedly told authorities the schooner was delayed by unfavourable winds.

Questions are now being asked about why authorities were not told of the delay, which would have prevented the costly search mission.

Authorities had spent days trying to contact the ship by radio, before launching an air search yesterday.

Julia Lang from Maritime New Zealand said authorities would meet The Alvei's crew when they arrived in Opua, in New Zealand in 8-10 days time.

They would be asked why the ship did not respond to the radio broadcasts, and why the delay was not reported to authorities.

"Relatives have been concerned ... had the vessel been making VHF contact we would have been able to allay anyone's fear relatively quickly,'' Lang said.

"All maritime authorities internationally see skippers as responsible for their vessels. Part of that is being responsible by keeping regular and scheduled communications via maritime radio or other means.

"The fact is it has been extremely difficult. It created a lot of anxiety.''

It is unclear whether the crew may be asked to fund the cost of the search.

[MMNETSEA]

Abbie, on Dec 7 2007, 11:30 AM, said:

Ummm they are going to be in big trouble!!

It is unclear whether the crew may be asked to fund the cost of the search.

A Very Big UMMMMM ! Not sure if crew can be held responsible - however the owner/skipper maybe in the dwang !!!

[Auzzee]

I don't want to take sides, or to upset anyone, particularly those with more offshore miles then I have logged.....But, Alvei is an old, heavy sailing vessel, dependent upon the weather to determine her pace. The owner of the vessel was adamant from the first time he was contacted by the media, that the vessel would be safe and her slow progress was not unusual. The authorities responded to concerns voiced by relatives of crew/passengers as indeed they are bound to do. I understand those aboard were predominently medical professionals who were taking medical assistance to remote areas of the South Pacific .

The lack of radio contact is highly unusual considering the boat's mission, unless there was an equipment failure. As cruising sailors, failures at sea are something we all come to expect. Perhaps the boat is only carrying VHF.

I do not know the condition of the boat, or the experience of the skipper...I have no knowledge of the boat or of anyone onboard her but it appears she is safely making her passage and all onboard are well and happy.

If it turns out the boat had a working SSB or satellite phone then the skipper should 'cop a bluey'...But I would like to hear his version of events before passing judgement.
Cheers
David

[Lighthouse]

Too soon to the rescue/search? Considering the vessel and the area in which she is sailing and the fact that no Mayday was received I believe that 4 days "overdue" is not excessive. If I were the skipper I may be a little annoyed that all the resources were despatched to look for me. Who knows at this stage that his power supply may be low and not used his SSB?

As it has turned out, a complete waste of money on the SAR resources. Perhaps the person who authorised the SAR may have some questions to answer?

[Abbie]

From today's paper.

Skipper won't face costs for search

5:00AM Monday December 10, 2007
By James Ihaka
A skipper who sparked a massive search and rescue operation after failing to turn on his ship's radio will pay nothing towards the operation, which cost taxpayers $40,000 for the use of one plane alone.

The 28m steel-hulled schooner Alvei left Vanuatu on November 13 and was due in the Bay of Islands on December 1. But a search was launched after the vessel was not seen or heard from for more than two weeks. A $5000-an-hour Air Force Orion was scrambled to hunt for the Alvei.

The Orion eventually found the ship 760km north of the North Island, but had to tell the crew to switch on their radio. The bill for use of the Orion alone is understood to have topped $40,000 for eight hours use.

Maritime NZ spokeswoman, Julia Lang, said fishing boats were also posted to watch for the missing vessel, and a Piper Chieftain flew to Norfolk Island and back unsuccessfully searching for the Alvei.



However, reports that the skipper - California-born, Nelson-based Evan Logan - would be facing a hefty bill were "absolutely incorrect", she said. "It was made very clear that no, that's not part of it at all. The vessel is in international waters and we don't recoup costs or anything like that.

"But MNZ will be speaking with the skipper, absolutely, about the importance of keeping scheduled radio trip reports."

Air Force spokesman Squadron Leader Glenn Davis said staff would not be taking the matter further, despite the Orion's hefty running costs.

Squadron Leader Davis said the Orion - which spent eight hours searching for the missing Alvei - was Government-funded for 150 hours of search flying time a year.

"More often than not we will go well over that," he said. "But we have an obligation to go and search for people regardless, we do not determine what happens afterwards."

Ms Lang said instances where a vessel's skipper did not have his radio turned on were "fairly rare".

"Obviously if the VH [radio] had been on and we were able to communicate with that vessel then we wouldn't have needed to put some assets out there to search for them."

The Alvei is due to arrive in Opua, in eight days.

[gunthian]

Here's some perspective:

RCCNZ was contacted when Alvei was 16 days out of of Vila; she was considered 'officially overdue' at 18 days, and planes were flying at 22 days out of Vila.

Against that, even a quick read of past logs on her site show that similar distances usually take her 21-30 days, sometimes more. Nelson to Suva last year was 27 days. Brisbane to Suva this year was 48 days. 'Officially overdue' at 18 days was a really bad call. Furthermore, it's pretty clear from the website and logs that she doesn't keep a tight schedule, that voyage dates and itineraries are flexible and weather-dependant, and that she typically doesn't keep regular communication at sea. And lastly, Alvei never actually published or announced a December 1st expected arrival date. That's just some date the concerned Australian relative came up with, based on a rough estimate given him or her by their relative on board. It was in no way an official ETA.

Radio on or not, some people were acting really hastily, starting with the relative who phoned it in in the first place. Their call was really irresponsible, IMO.

[delatbabel]

I had a recent experience sailing down the east coast of Australia. Left Airlie Beach on the 26th November, with a planned arrival date in Sydney of 5th Dec. Let various people along the way know of the plans.

One crew member, who we were picking up in Southport on the 30th November, pulled out at the last minute, so we decided we didn't need to push so hard, in fact we decided we weren't going to go into Soutport at all. Had pretty light headwinds on the way down so needed to use some fuel, and ended up getting into Southport on the 1st Dec. Maintained radio (VHF) contact the entire way down.

After that we decided we needed to pick up the pace, and we had the use of some good NE winds with a SE change on the way. Maintained VHF contact as far as Coffs Harbour, but informed them at that point that we were going to head due south, offshore and probably out of VHF range. In fact we informed marine rescue two days before that that was going to happen -- as far north as Southport we said "don't count us missing if we lose VHF contact, we're going offshore to use the current and the wind". Now this time of the year the East Australia Current runs about 2 knots due south from the NSW / Queensland border, so if you follow it down you end up about 60 miles off shore by the time you reach Sydney (check google maps or your charts for the shape of the NSW coast -- and run a rhumb line due south from Point Danger / Tweed Heads and see where that gets you).

So we decided to follow the current and let the VMR folks know that is what we were doing. On contacting Coffs Harbour we verified that this was written on our logging sheet, and our ETA was Sydney on 6th Dec. South of Coffs Harbour (3rd Dec) we managed to get brief contact with VMR Trial Bay but not enough to put in a report. 4th Dec we contacted Coast Radio Adelaide via HF and told them we had lost VHF contact, and they could tell VMR that we were outside range, and confirmed an ETA of 6th Dec.

On a bright sunny afternoon of the 6th Dec we sailed into Sydney Harbour to find that VMR, water police, and various other authorities were looking for us, and had in fact rung my girlfriend and family to say we were missing (who all panicked of course). Despite all previous contacts to the contrary.

What do you do, eh?

Del