Christchurch man, Nathan Maclure, was lucky to be rescued after 30 hours adrift off the Canterbury coast.

His Sea-Doo jet-ski broke down on Friday afternoon near the mouth of the Waimakariri River and strong currents dragged him south to Lyttelton Harbour and then returned him 30 km up the coast towards his original position. He survived two storms, hailstones, jellyfish, sharks and the bitter cold of the night before being picked up by a Russian fishing boat on Saturday evening (3rd January)

Coastguard Waimakariri-Ashley Lifeboat were alerted by Police and four crew members in a rescue vessel rendezvoused with the Ivan Goulbets 13km from shore to pick up Mr Maclure and return him to land. Sumner Lifeboat also attended to provide back up support.

Glenn Scott, Coxswain of Coastguard Waimakariri-Ashley Lifeboat, said that Nathan was a very lucky man. “As no one had reported him missing he was incredibly lucky that the fishing boat was in the vicinity let alone having it see him”. Mr Scott said that a jet-ski was considered a vessel, and that any vessel venturing out in the sea should carry some kind of communications device. “A hand held VHF radio is recommended as well as flares” he said.