Five Australian survivors of a shipwreck recalled their ordeal to The Fiji Times when their 17-metre yacht, Colonial Boy, ran aground on a reef off Beqa Island.
The Fiji Times of Monday, May 12, 1980 reported that the survivors were rescued by the government ship Ra Marama as they were drifting in a life raft after having abandoned their yacht.
“Relaxing at the Isa Lei Hotel yesterday, a spokesman for the crew, Mr Carl Pemberton, 32, said they were not familiar with the reefs around the island, and so they had decided to wait until morning before bringing the yacht into Suva,” the article read.
“We were more concerned about keeping the yacht away from the reef around Viti Levu. We didn’t realise that we were going closer to the reef near Beqa,” Mr Pemberton said.
“It was already dark and we couldn’t come in any further.”
He said the yacht had had bad luck since it left Australia and the crew were plagued with problems.
“We left Lord Howe, off Australia and found we had dirty fuel.
“The dirt clogged up the engine and we drifted along and decided we would have to sail into Suva,” he said.
“But because we were unsure of the area, we sailed during the day and then we would let the yacht drift at night.”
They didn’t give up hope and kept going.
While coming into Suva, it got too dark for them to bring the yacht through the reef.
However, things didn’t go right for them, and the yacht was caught in a storm.
“It ripped the mainsail and left us with no engine and with no sail either,” he said.
Colonial Boy came within three metres of Beqa reef, then it clipped the edge.
“By about 6.30pm or 7pm the yacht was sitting on top of the reef,” he said.
The waves began to get bigger, and the yacht suffered a hole in the side and damage to the hull.
“We thought we would tether the life raft to the yacht so that we could always get back to it, but it became impossible and we had to cut the rope,” he said.
“The wind was blowing us towards the mainland coast, but then direction changed and started blowing the raft to sea again.
“A plane came searching for us early on Thursday morning and it was a good feeling to know that we had been found,” Mr Pemberton said.
He said when the plane returned, it circled over the raft and guided the Government ship Ra Marama to where they were.
Mr Pemberton added that the yacht was salvageable, but they had not managed to get out to see it because of the rough weather.
