Ariana has a Well-Earned Rest

After going missing for 11 days on a trip from Lyttelton, battered by huge seas and gales in Cook Strait and grounded in calm conditions on the way home, the ketch Ariana finally arrived in Nelson. Her four-man crew were tired, dirty and thankful to be alive. The trip started as a normal four-day cruise from Lyttelton, to deliver the ketch. The worst gales to sweep Cook Strait for many years turned the voyage into a nightmare. The Ariana was swept through the Strait and 170 miles out into the Tasman. A massive air and sea search failed to find her. When finally sighted and contacted, the crew refused a tow from the trawler Sea Lord II. On the way home the Ariana inexplicably grounded near Awaroa. An offer of a tow was accepted and the delivery voyage of the Ariana was history.

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The four-man crew: Dick Taylor, Randy Hansen, Jack Davis (owner) and Jim Harper. (Barry Simpson Photo)

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The ketch Ariana at rest. There is little to indicate the battering the sturdy craft took