Three people were plucked to safety after spending two hours in the sea when a rogue wave capsized their boat.
The trio were attempting to cross the Kaipara Bar off the Auckland coast when the wave struck.
The notoriously dangerous harbour entrance was also the site of one of New Zealand’s worst maritime disasters in recent history.
Eight people died when the fishing vessel the Francie sank while crossing the bar in 2016.
On Saturday night, Coastguard Kaipara said it received an urgent callout at 5.30pm after a vessel had capsized in the water past the bar.
“By pure chance, they were picked up after two hours in the water by a passing boat heading home,” it said in a Facebook post.
“Winstone Rescue crossed the bar in challenging conditions and transferred the three cold, tired and understandably shocked crew to lighten the other boat for the inbound crossing as the sun set and light faded.”
The vessel returned to a Parakai base after a “long, choppy ride” in 3m swells and a 1m steep beam to hand over the three boaties to waiting ambulances.
Coastguard Kaipara praised the actions of the boaties after they were unlucky to be hit by a wave.
“[They] were wearing lifejackets, stayed together and had attempted to make a bar crossing report.
“They were extremely lucky to be picked up by the passing boat and carrying a personal locator beacon would have meant that rescue services would have been alerted much sooner to the emergency.”
This was an example of how quickly the situation can change on the bar, the Coastguard said.
“We recommend that all crew crossing the bar have at least a handheld VHF radio, and PLB [personal locator beacon] clipped to their PFD [personal flotation device] as there is no time to grab them when things start to happen.”
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