The impressive story of the "Scotch Bonnet"

While doing a training walk for my marathon the other week, on the beach near Brunswick, I chanced across an inspiring story ...

But first, let's go back in time.

In October 2011, a 10 metre yacht called the Scotch Bonnet and her crew were caught in a severe storm in the middle of the Tasman Sea: 1000 km from New Zealand and 1000 km from Australia. In the huge and heavy seas, the yacht's mast broken and the rigging destroyed, the crew had no option but to set off their EPIRB device (emergency beacon), whereupon they were rescued by a container ship.

They had no option, but to abandon the yacht to her fate. They were devastated.

Nothing was seen of the yacht and the assumption was that she had gone down, till in December 2011, a cruise ship with 2000 passengers, the Sun Princess, came across the yacht still floating in the Tasman. They sent out a rescue team but ascertained the yacht was abandoned. It was unclear what the legal status of the yacht was, whether it posed a safety risk to shipping lanes, and whether it ought to be scuppered. They eventually decided to leave it be, and it wasn't seen again...

Until, months later, it drifted calmly ashore on a long and clear stretch of coast just south of Brunswick Heads... where I just happened to be walking, and happened to have a camera.

This amazing vessel has survived, without crew, and relatively undamaged beyond her first storm (how many others has she weathered?)...

Salvage company has just arrived

So little damage on such a long lonely journey ...

The yacht survived some 22 weeks at sea on her own.  I don't wish to sound too anthropomorphistic, but I find this an inspiring and heartwarming story of survival ...