Christmas with a difference.
Christmas Day was always going to be memorable as this would mark the very first Christmas we were not in Australia and no family parties or gatherings to go to. No one to cook for except us. We could just relax and enjoy the day as we had planned.
After a sleep in and a look around we saw that the day was going to get fairly rough later with a 1m swell coming into the bay. But we decided to stay one more night and go into the Marina on Boxing Day. I went for a paddle ashore and walk along the beach before a lovely brunch of smoked salmon bagels with cream cheese and an espresso martini. Had a swim and fed the ducks and settled in to wait for our Pork Belly Christmas dinner to cook.
We sat down to watch Die Hard, one of the best Christmas movies, and saw a sail skim past our window. I went out to check and a small yacht had capsized and the people were righting it and getting back on board. They seemed OK and waved to let us know they were OK.
David looked in the opposite direction and said, "The real action is over here." He pointed to the corner of the bay where I saw two boats collide. We both thought the large white boat, OKA Fruition, was in some sort of trouble and was dragging or had engine trouble. But this wasn't the case.
He rammed the boat purposefully and ignorantly, like a terrorist attacking an anchored peaceful vessel, on Christmas Day. We watched him leave that Boat and make his way to the next boat belonging to a French man. He had a short conversation with this crazy man and jumped into his dinghy and drove to the next boat, Love Worx. He had a short conversation with them, then we heard them call for help on the radio. They called the Coast Guard on channel 16 but they did not answer. They called, "Coast Guard, this is Loveworx, we have a boat nearby who is ramming other boats in Oneroa Bay. We require urgent assistance." After no one replied to this distress call, David then called Maritime Radio and issued a Pan Pan. Maritime radio responded and David proceeded to inform them of the location and actions of the offending vessel.
During this conversation, Fruition, headed towards Loveworx and threatened to ram them if they did not give him their phone. The French guy, still in his dinghy then headed towards us asking us to call for help as the guy was crazy and wanted a phone as the aliens were coming.
I was filming most of this and you can hear the distress in my voice. I felt that we were in a crisis situation and had to act quickly to save ourselves. I didn't know what this crazy was capable of, all I knew was what I saw and he had rammed two boats by this stage. He chased Loveworx out to the middle of the bay and then turned towards us.
I screamed for him to stop and anchor as he was very close to our boat. He asked for my phone, and I said I would help him if he just anchored and stopped threatening us and our boat. He said, "If you don't give me your phone I will ram you like I rammed the others, did you see"? I was distraught by this stage and David had begun to put fenders out in the likely event he rammed us. I thought we should up anchor and move away from him, but David said we should stay. So he rammed us as well, not as bad as the others, but we got a long scratch and another black mark along our rubbing strip.
I worried he was going to come around for another hit and I was yelling that the Police were on their way and he was in a lot of trouble. All of this took place over about 30 minutes, then he sat down at the back of his boat and he drifted into the middle of the bay. Then he started engines and motored out around the corner. David directed Police to his location and eventually we saw them motor across the top of the bay in the direction of Fruition. Then about 10 minutes later, Fruition was motoring with the Police close behind back to the Marina. They got him, and we knew we would be involved in whatever charges were pending towards him. They other two boats that were rammed sustained more damage than Mai Tai.
The owners of the first boat, Nala got David's phone number from the Coast Gard and they called to thank us for calling a Pan Pan. They called the land Police that watched a lot of what happened helplessly from the shore.
Even though we have been in stressful situations before, this was different. There was no where to go. We were on a boat in the middle of a bay. We wanted to protect our home from any damage and if our lives were in danger we had a life raft and a dinghy. But what if crazy guy had a gun, knife, weapon of some sort. He used his boat as a ramming weapon and did a lot of damage to property and people. But what if?
Now we have a very different story of Christmas day to what we usually experience. Merry Christmas 2024.










