MILLION DOLLAR SALVAGE

Seems our cuz Vaughn Fisher has been in the news again. This time in a mission that took him to iceberg country when he was asked to salvage a yacht drifting waaay down south.

Bluff fisherman Vaughan Fisher was contracted by Mr Luchtenborg's insurers to tow the stricken yacht Horizons back to Bluff.

Mr Fisher, Mr Luchtenborg and four crew left Bluff on Saturday afternoon on board Mr Fisher's 18m cray boat X.S.

Mr Luchtenborg said the salvors were to travel 500km from Bluff into the southeast Tasman Sea and his wife had been plotting where the yacht was drifting using GPS from Germany.

"It (Horizons) was very easy to find."

While he was elated to be reunited with his yacht, which he has owned for a year, it had sustained additional damage in the days since he abandoned ship, he said.

As well as the rudder damage, the yacht was carrying some water after being swamped by rough seas, its weather vane was broken and the automatic pilot system was damaged, he said.

He planned to stay in Bluff until parts arrived to repair the yacht before sailing for home, he said.

Mr Fisher said yesterday the salvage operation took an epic 50 hours and covered about 1000km – the furthest he had ever been to undertake a tow.

The crew spotted the yacht about 9.30pm on Sunday and had it under tow an hour and a half later.

Mr Luchtenborg wept when he first saw his yacht, but the tears were those of relief, Mr Fisher said.

"After checking his yacht he clambered back on board, gave us a big hug and was hollering in German.

And we salute Vaughn , he had delivered, to the parents of BustedBlonde, a polybin of crayfish to help them celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.
However it had the courier a bit perplexed.. Instead of the old mans name it had the correct street number and name but was addressed simply to "Mogoo."
Dad's nickname that has its origins in some bad ass comic character.. ( not to be mistaken for the myopic Mr Magoo

MILLION DOLLAR CATCH

We were delighted with the Million Dollar catch programme last night. BB's son used to crew on the X-S. and BB has been on boats in most of the places that were screened last night. Vaughn Fisher is my cousin and a tough but good bastard. Johnny Hawkeless used to crew for my father. And Rewi Bull is part of one of the biggest muttonbirding families of the south and his crew Storm is the son of another one of my cousins and a hellava cool kid.

So we thought that last night New Zealand got a glimpse of just what sort of crap these men work in. Its the toughest place to fish in New Zealand apart from perhaps the Chathams.

We liked that there is actually a story emerging and there are 10 episodes to go. While Vaughn and Johnny own their quota, Rewi does not. He has a tough row to hoe to make a buck. So the programme has featured a good spread of the types of fishermen the Southern Rock Lobster Fleet is made up of.

Ayway you can watch the programme here

MILLION DOLLAR CATCH

Its on tonite - TV3 7.30 ... Life on the high seas in the deep south.

MILLION DOLLAR COUSINS

I have always been very proud of my cousins on both sides of the family tree. However Dad's fishing family side from Bluff and Stewart Island are about to become media stars.
The FV X-S ( pronounced excess) owned by my cousin Vaughn Fisher, is a magnificent vessel. The FV Shangri - La is another great workhorse skippered by Gordon Wardrop whose wife is another cousin. Both fish with their sons as crew. Many times when I watched the Deadliest Catch about the Alaskan Crab fishermen, I wondered how long it would be before someone would do something similar with the Southern Rock lobster fishermen. TV3 have done just that with Million Dollar Catch due to screen soon.
Most places Gordon and Vaughn fish are a salty, wet, heart stopping kinda hell. My son was crew for Gordon for a short time before he joined the X-S as crew for Vaughn for a couple of years, before embarking on his dream of becoming a helicopter pilot. He learned well under arguably the top lobster skippers in Bluff.
Various members of our family have been fishing for 6 generations. In fact the crews on both the X-S and Shangri- la are the 7th generation to take to the sea. It is a hard, uncompromising way to earn a living , they earn every big dollar they make and it is exponentially tougher to fish in the South than anywhere else in New Zealand. So if there is one programme you cannot miss this year it is Million Dollar Catch on TV3. The boys will tell it like it is - they know no other way.

The last time I was at my cousin Vaughn's place after the very sad occasion of the funeral of our uncle Peter Topi and our cousins who were drowned when the Kotuku sank in Foveaux Strait coming back from the muttonbird island. In fact up until that terrible day - in the course of 80 years, 14 men in dad's family died at sea.

The boys in Million Dollar catch have a great sense of humour, bawdy and black, honed after many, many hard years at sea. Like many people who have held the stare of the cold hard eyes of death, they embrace life like there may be no tomorrow. So watch Million Dollar Catch , and witness the salt crusted warriors of the southern seas at their outrageous best. And remember they are not larger than life , they just live large lives.

update Rewi Bull bought the Shangri La last year so will be one of the stars of the show. Good bloke and great whanau.