Wellington, Feb 11, 2007, 8:07 GMT

A Maritime New Zealand spokesman told Radio New Zealand that the search for McAuley was called off Sunday night after it was revealed that he was not carrying an immersion suit, and would be reviewed overnight.
Two helicopters searched the area on Sunday without finding any trace of the 39-year-old adventurer who was trying to complete the first solo kayak crossing of one of the world’s roughest stretches of water.
McAuley’s wife Vicki and five-year-old son Finlay had been awaiting his arrival at Milford, in New Zealand’s South Island Fiordland.
Family members had advised that contrary to earlier information, McAuley was not carrying an immersion suit, which would have given him a better chance of survival.

Andrew Darby in Hobart
February 12, 2007

Hopes of finding the missing trans-Tasman kayaker Andrew McAuley alive are fading amid conflicting reports about whether he carried a vital piece of survival equipment - a full-body immersion suit.
Mr McAuley, 39, is believed to have been knocked out of his kayak just 80 kilometres short of the New Zealand coast on his controversial voyage from Tasmania. His disappearance may have been caused by rough seas tearing the safety bubble from his kayak, the vessel’s designer said last night.
A search by three aircraft of a wide area west of Milford Sound yesterday had found nothing, Maritime New Zealand’s rescue co-ordination centre said in Wellington. The upturned kayak was recovered on Saturday night.
The boat’s designer, Paul Hewitson, said after examining the vessel that it was complete except for the 70 centimetre-tall fibreglass bubble that sat at the back. The device could be locked over the cockpit as Mr McAuley slept. It also enabled the kayak to right itself when it capsized.
“Everything in the boat is in perfect work ing order, except it doesn’t have the bubble,” Mr Hewitson said. “It’s a key component to the operation. Something big has ripped the bubble off and probably capsized him.”
Authorities had been hopeful the adventurer could survive for at least a few days in the conditions, because they believed he was wearing his lifejacket and an immersion suit. But a spokeswoman for the rescue co-ordination centre, Annie Lattey, said searchers had been told the kayaker had only a dry kayaking jacket and his lifejacket on board. “It obviously does have an impact on things. Survival suits give about 10 to 11 hours extra. He has been in the water now for about 48 hours.”
A fellow adventurer, Ben Deacon, said he was certain Mr McAuley had taken an immersion suit. “They have got that information from [Mr McAuley’s wife] Vicki, who is very upset at the moment,” he said.
“Vicki wasn’t really in a position to give chapter and verse of Andrew’s equipment.” He added: “Andrew is exceptionally suited to extreme situations. His psyche is best summed up as coolness under pressure. The sort of things that wear most people out, he does easily.”
Mr Deacon said Mrs McAuley and the couple’s three-year-old son, Finlay, were being joined by relatives in New Zealand. “As you can imagine, this is any family’s worst nightmare.”
It is believed Mrs McAuley last spoke to her husband a week ago on his weakening satellite phone, which was used mainly to keep in touch by text message.
She said then he was likely to have lost strength after battling a storm towards the end of his month-long passage, and she felt apprehensive. She was in shock yesterday, said a friend, the adventurer Jennifer Peedom.
Mr McAuley, an IT consultant from Glenbrook, left Tasmania on January 11 against the advice of the national search and rescue organisation, AusSAR, that the crossing was too dangerous. He had modified his kayak to deal with the cold after turning back from an attempt in December.
At 7 o’clock last night searchers gave up scouring the seas for the day. Ms Lattey said information gathered in the search would be analysed and a decision would be made this morning about the next steps.

Steve Creedy
February 12, 2007

The family of missing Australian kayaker Andrew McAuley remained confident last night he would be found alive in the bone-chilling waters off New Zealand’s South Island.
The 39-year-old adventurer’s family released a statement last night confirming that he had a dry suit, a life jacket and VHF radio, none of which were found in his upturned kayak that was recovered on Saturday night.
“We can confirm that Andrew McAuley had a Kokatat dry-suit on board,” the family said. “It is not uncommon for people to survive for extended periods in these conditions.”
Rescuers will decide today whether to continue searching for McAuley, whose upturned kayak was spotted by a New Zealand air force plane in rough seas about 75km off Milford Sound in the south island.
There was no sign of McAuley, who had been expected to arrive in Milford Sound yesterday after leaving Tasmania on January 11 in an attempt to become the first person to paddle across the Tasman in a kayak. Rescuers had been alerted by a garbled distress call which reportedly included the line, “my kayak is sinking”.
The Rescue Co-ordination Centre of New Zealand yesterday rated his chances of survival as slim based on earlier reports from McAuley’s family that he did not have the full body dry suit with him.
However, Ben Deacon, a friend of the adventurer and a member of the team making a documentary about his voyage, said he was certain McAuley was carrying a waterproof immersion suit.
“There has been a bit of confusion on their (the rescuers’) part. They have got that information from (Andrew’s wife) Vicki who is very upset at the moment,” he said.
“Vicki wasn’t really in a position to give chapter and verse of Andrew’s equipment.
“What Andrew has achieved so far is simply remarkable and if anyone is going to survive a couple of nights out in the ocean, we truly believe he can. We remain hopeful the rescue will be successful. People have said he can’t do things before but he has always proved them wrong. He is immensely experienced and totally prepared for this expedition. You shouldn’t write-off Andrew McAuley too soon.”

Last chance for missing kayaker
February 12, 2007 - 8:23AM

Two planes have this morning resumed the search for missing trans-Tasman kayaker Andrew McAuley off the South Island of New Zealand.
The Rescue Coordination Centre of New Zealand decided this morning to continue their search for Mr McAuley, whose upturned kayak was spotted by a NZ Air Force plane on Saturday afternoon.
Two private, fixed-wing aircraft are searching for Mr McAuley, and his family is holding out hope that he is still alive.
Searcher Lloyd Matheson said the case of missing diver Robert Hewitt offered some hope for searchers, but the conditions were more favourable in that case.
A former Navy diver, Mr Hewitt was nearly given up for dead after going missing from a dive trip off the Kapiti coast in February last year.
By some miracle he was found after 75 hours at sea, not far from where he started.
“If you look at the Hewitt case, three days is a possibility. But you’ve got to be fit, you’ve got have the right gear,” Mr Matheson told Radio New Zealand.
RCCNZ spokesman Lindsay Sturt said a man could survive in 15 degrees celsius weather and large swells for about 12 hours.

Search for missing kayaker to end by nightfall.
Nzpa. Monday, 12 February 2007

Rescue Co-ordination Centre NZ (RCC) spokeswoman Julia Lang said two fixed-wing aircraft were in the air with a helicopter on hand to deploy in case of a sighting. The search, in excellent conditions, had yielded nothing by mid-afternoon today.
The search operation has focused on an area of 1400 square nautical miles, and Ms Lang said the teams expected to have covered the entire area before nightfall.
The search will be suspended, even if McAuley is not found, the centre said today.
Spokesman Peter Williams told Radio New Zealand the centre had done everything it could.
If the family chose to continue the search themselves, RCC would offer as information and expertise, he said.
However, the search had already covered a large area, and McAuley had capsized in cold water. It was unlikely he had survived.
Documentary maker Jen Peedom said that the metre-high capsule purpose-built for the voyage, nicknamed Casper, and designed to cover the kayak’s cockpit, protecting McAuley while he slept and in rough seas, could have been opened and resting on the foredeck as the adventurer was in relatively calm waters.
“What appears to have happened, and one can only assume, is that he was hit by a wave while it (the capsule) was not up,” Peedom said.
She said if the kayak capsized while Casper was not up, the capsule could have filled with water and been torn off.
When the kayak was found Casper was no longer attached to the vessel, which gave credence to the theory, she said.
Peedom discounted suggestions McAuley had been swept away after leaving the cockpit of his kayak to get food from compartments elsewhere in the hull.
She said McAuley had only anticipated leaving the cockpit of the kayak three times to get food from the back hull, and when the kayak was found there was already food in the main hull.

Kayak builder speculates
By Sophie Speer - The Southland Times
Tuesday, 13 February 2007

The situation must have unravelled swiftly for kayaker Andrew McAuley not to have set of his emergency beacon, kayak builder Paul Hewitson said yesterday.
Mr Hewitson, of Australia, has been helping police with their investigation to find out what may have caused Mr McAuley to become separated from his kayak off the coast of Milford Sound on Friday night as he neared the end of his attempted trans-Tasman crossing.
A garbled distress call was made shortly after 7pm on Friday night.
Mr Hewitson said one possibility was a large wave, which may not have been as large as some he had experienced but which may have knocked him out of his kayak. After 30 days in the water Mr McAuley may not have had the strength to get himself back into the kayak.
There have been conflicting reports about whether Mr McAuley had the correct safety equipment but Mr Hewitson said he had taken an immersion suit on his first attempt at the 1600km crossing, which was abandoned in December last year because of rough weather.
Mr McAuley had given Mr Hewitson a list of items he did not take on the second attempt but the immersion suit was not on the list.
It was assumed Mr McAuley had his dry suit on, which he had been wearing for the entire trip. Mr Hewitson said the immersion suit would have been too bulky to paddle in so may have been kept in the kayak’s back hatch. One possibility was that he had tried to get it out of the hatch in a hurry, leaving it open and causing the kayak to fill with water, he said. This may have been why the distress call on Friday night contained the words “I’m sinking”.
He said Mr McAuley had a rope to tether him to the kayak when he entered the water to retrieve items from the front hatch. However, he was unable to say whether Mr McAuley was using this tether at the time. “If he was, he wasn’t tethered very well.” The kayak could have moved away too fast for him to swim back to it.
Mr Hewitson viewed the kayak on Sunday and said it was in perfect working order. The only thing missing was the cockpit cover, which was designed to provide shelter while sleeping as well as to right the kayak when it capsized.
It was not clear at which stage the device detached from the kayak.
Photographs taken by someone on the Clipper Odessy, the cruise liner that picked up the kayak after its discovery on Saturday night, may help answer more questions.
This would include whether he was paddling at the time of the incident, or whether he had finished for the night and was preparing to “shut up shop” and close the cockpit cover, Mr Hewitson said.

Andrew McAuley Support Fund.
A support fund has been set up by the New South Wales Sea Kayak Club to help Vicki McAuley and family following the tragic disappearance of Andrew McAuley. To make a donation, please electronically transfer funds to:

Account name: Andrew McAuley
Bank: Commonwealth Bank of Australia
BSB: 062505
Account: 10184059
SWIFT: CTBAAU2S (for international transfers)