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Tauranga resident – Gordon Stacey thought his number was up.
Caught in high seas nearly 5km off the Northland coast, all hope of survival was drowning fast.
But just as despair was about to take over, a charter boat emerged from the whitecaps, pulled up alongside him and hauled him to safety.
The drama unfolded on Monday when Mr Stacey’s longline, which he had launched from Rarawa Beach in the Far North, became snagged.
He drove to Wagener Park at Houhora Heads to hire a kayak, returned to Rarawa, then set out to free it.
When he had not returned two hours later, the alarm was raised.
Several vessels began searching the coast while the Northland Electricity rescue helicopter tried to locate Mr Stacey, 37, from above.
Nearly four hours later there was still no sign of the Tauranga fisherman and part-time builder. The high seas had swamped his kayak and he had drifted out to sea. Treading water with only the aid of a life jacket, his hope was fading fast.
But he refused to give up. He had a six-year-old son at home in Tauranga.
“I had to work hard to battle despair. It was tough going at times,” he said.
More so when he would see the rescue helicopter blast out of the clouds, only to veer away to search somewhere else.
“The crew was obviously have difficulty spotting me despite my yellow life jacket,” he said.
However, he resisted the urge to panic and after four long hours in icy seas, he was spotted by a charter boat.
But the tale followed the best tradition of fishing stories, when Mr Stacey later hired a boat to take him out in the hope of finally retrieving his longline, which he did, complete with nine snapper.
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