[Kyle Sykes] recounted the ordeal: “We were fishing away there for about 20 minutes [on Saturday] and then I looked over and seen a little bit of smoke in the distance.
“I sort of thought, ‘Hmm, I wonder if someone’s having a big fire at Māhia. Then it got more smoky, so I got the binoculars out ... and then I just seen the tip of his mast on the horizon and smoke straight behind it.
“I though, ‘Oh no, no no, something’s not right here’. Then I heard the helicopter, and that was it, man, rods up, I just decided that was it, we were off,” Sykes said. [...]
“We got all the way out there and realised there were flames nearly as high as a house. It was pretty out of control,” he said.
Somebody in the helicopter pointed Sykes and his crew towards a liferaft floating nearby.
The crew pulled the man, who was in and out of consciousness, onto My Sexy Mistress.
“He was in shock. It was a bit of a scary ordeal all round for the three of us. It was a bit of a special moment, but was a bit scary at the same time,” Sykes said.
“We pulled his liferaft on and made our way back to Clifton Beach, where my trailer was, so we could get the helicopter to meet us there.” [...]
Sykes shied away from the word ‘hero’, saying he was just pleased he was out on the water when he was needed.
“The biggest thing I was concerned about at the time, I didn’t know how many people were going to be on board.”
