An Air Force Orion sent to search for four New Zealanders on a yacht off Fiji has now rendezvoused with the crew.
The New Zealand-owned yacht, with four Kiwis aboard, ran aground on a reef 370km south of Fiji this morning.
On board are Havana CoffeeWorks founders Peter McLean and Geoff Marsland, Fairfax reported.
The yacht, Jungle, is owned by Peter McLean.
Mr Marsland's brother, Mike, said he had just heard about the grounding through the media "in the last five minutes".
He had not heard from anyone aboard the boat, which he described as "a big flash yacht".
Those on board activated a distress beacon at 4am today.
The 20m-long boat left Picton a week ago, heading for Tonga.
They decided to go to Fiji last night because of an equipment failure, then activated a distress beacon at 4am after going aground on a reef 425km from Suva.
Rescue Coordination Centre spokesman Keith Allen says efforts have been made to contact boats in the area by radio.
He says unfortunately the nearest boat they've been able to contact is about 200km away, can only sail at about seven knots and will take 24 hours to reach Jungle.
