THREE tourists are counting themselves lucky that a trained rescue diver heard their call for help minutes before their yacht sunk in waters off Vatulele.
Maurice Conti plucked the trio out of high swells five hours after getting the mayday call.
He was travelling with his wife and two young children -- Annabelle, 4, and Massimo, 8.
Strong winds on Sunday night whipped up high seas and wrought havoc for the yachties, who were on their way to Kadavu from Suva.
Their yacht Timella hit a reef and sank 12 miles off Beqa and Vatulele.
New Zealander Ali Timms and Australians Cameron Scagle and Liz Scloch were in waters where swells were as high as five meters.
They had jumped onto a life raft but the mast broke and pierced the raft.
Captain Paul McCulloch, the owner of Robinson Crusoe Island Resort, said after the rescue, the crew sheltered on the island before flying back to their home countries yesterday.
"Maurice was with his family on Ocealys when he got the mayday call at midnight on Sunday," Captain Paul said.
"He tried calling both the Australian and New Zealand High commissions without success.
"The navy and police could not go out to sea because of some problems.
"A Mike Randall from the NZ embassy then organised the NZ search and rescue to co-ordinate the mission via satellite phone.
"Maurice did not get to the boat until 5.30 in the morning. They were hanging on to each other in the water and he got them out to safety in 10 minutes."
"They said Maurice was an answer to their prayers, pulling Cameron who was twice his weight. He was also very daring in that he left his family on the boat to go after the crew in the water."
Attempts to get comments from the Navy and Police Maritime Safety Office last night were unsuccessful.
It is not known why the navy was unable to respond to the emergency.
The navy has three operational patrol boats which are usually based at Stanley Brown Naval Base, Walu Bay.
Police have at least one sea-going patrol boat based at Lami.
It is unclear whether the police boat -- seized by the army in December 2006 -- is operational.
No report of the incident had been issued to the media by police or navy maritime surveillance centres when this edition went to press.
