After all these years, I am still amazed at how much luck or fate was involved in my surviving the Wahine disaster in 1968.
The luck started the day before the Otago University cricket team left Dunedin, when I hastily arranged some personal effects insurance, mainly because my flat was going to be empty over Easter.
I had signed the proposal, hadn't even been invoiced for the premium, but I was covered. I was one of the few team members to receive any insurance payout.
Fate played a role when the lifeboat I had to jump into from the badly listing Wahine was swamped in the rough seas. It flipped over. It was overcrowded but because my team-mate, Stuart Hunt, and I were the last on, it was relatively easy for us to escape from it into the sea.
There would have been 20 to 30 people, all in lifejackets, clinging on to the upturned lifeboat.
The next 30 to 40 minutes were quite scary as we were continually swept off the lifeboat by huge waves breaking over us. We ended up 25m to 30m away and each time swam back.
Each time, there seemed to be fewer and fewer people returning to the lifeboat. This was the only time I feared for my life. My body was certainly producing plenty of adrenaline.
Luckily, the wind suddenly dropped and the waves subsided. A tiny fishing boat picked us up and landed us at Seatoun Wharf, where locals provided hot soup and blankets. We were then transported to the Wellington Railway Station.
Here, again, luck played its part as I met Pauline Gordon, a friend from Otago University. She invited myself and another team-mate, Alan McDougall, to stay at her parents' place. Her father happened to be JB Peter Gordon, the MP for Clutha and the Minister of Transport.
He was a great organiser and dynamic character and soon took us to the DIC Department Store and ensured we secured a replacement set of clothing.
There was no such thing as counselling in those days and there is no doubt the Wahine disaster played a significant role in the lives of all my team-mates. The weather that day in Wellington was unbelievable and I still have a very healthy respect for the power of nature.
