A 40-litre cask of whisky is still lying unused in a boat somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean, laughs Commander Paul Andrew Johnson, commanding officer of Australian naval frigate HMAS Ballarat .
It had been gifted to Irish yachtsman, Golden Globe Race contestant Gregor McGuckin, by his sponsor for use on completion of the race. While he was able to salvage his guitar from his demasted boat, the whisky had to be abandoned along with the boat, says Cdr Johnson as he recalls his ship’s mission to rescue both Mr. McGuckin and fellow competitor, India’s circumnavigator Commander Abhilash Tomy.
It was the last week of September when a devastating storm ripped through their boats. Cdr Tomy was incapacitated by a back injury and a demasted Mr. McGuckin was trying to reach him to help. “We had just finished our workup training on that Friday and were about to start a three-week pre-deployment leave on Saturday morning when I was told we may have to sail to rescue the storm-hit yachtsmen,” Cdr Johnson told The Hindu on Monday at a social event held as part of the 10th anniversary celebrations of Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS), as his ship was preparing to leave the Kochi harbour early on Tuesday, after a four-day port call.
On receiving orders, the ship’s company was recalled along with a medical team and the helicopter crew. “We sailed that [Saturday] evening. We didn’t know how bad any of the yachts were, but we knew they were about four days, 2,000 nautical miles, away. We sailed as quickly as we could and as we went ahead, we got images from Indian [P8I] and Australian maritime patrol aircraft. The French vessel Osiris was getting close to them. We were preparing for all kinds of scenarios. And a day before we arrived, both yachtsmen were picked up by the French vessel and taken to the Amsterdam Isle. We reached there the next morning and sent a helicopter in with a medical officer. The Indian Navy was sending INS Satpura for Abhilash. So, we picked up Gregor McGuckin and brought him back [to Perth].”
It was an excellent international rescue operation conducted by India, Australia and the UK in collaboration, with the Rescue Coordination Centre in Canberra coordinating it, maintains Cdr Johnson. He vividly recalls Mr. McGuckin fondly reminiscing his pre-race days and post-rescue time in hospital with Cdr Tomy.
When Cdr Tomy’s father visited Ballarat at harbour to thank the crew on Monday, Cdr Johnson gifted him two pieces of the ship’s crest. “It was a nice gesture on his part and it also has images of the vessel,” says Lt Cdr (retd) VC Tomy, Cdr Abhilash Tomy’s father. As a token of his gratitude, he gave the skipper of Ballarat a copy of 151, the coffee table tome by his son detailing the non-stop solo circumnavigation done by him.
