Homework goes to bottom of the sea with family yacht

JOHN SELKIRK/ The Dominion Post

HOME AND HAPPY: Rebekah Bradfield, 6, and her sister Abby, 10, back in Auckland.

JOHN SELKIRK/ The Dominion Post

OUR HERO: Joy Bradfield with rescuer Lieutenant Numa Durbec of the French Navy on the patrol boat La Glorieuse in Auckland.

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A teenage shipwreck survivor, rescued from a yacht in "horror seas", has a pretty good excuse for not handing in his homework.

"I have the best excuse in the world when I go back to school. I'll just say: `Sorry, Miss, my homework is at the bottom of the sea'," Thomas Bradfield, 13, said yesterday after reaching dry land in Auckland.

His father, Charles Bradfield, mother Joy, and five brothers and sisters were plucked from their wrecked yacht in the Pacific by the French patrol boat La Glorieuse in a daring rescue on Wednesday.

The family had been on the return leg of a two-month trip to Tonga when their 12.8-metre yacht Carenza snapped its mast after several days of ferocious weather. "By the grace of God we had no injuries on board and we are eternally grateful," Dr Bradfield said as the family arrived home in good spirits.

On Tuesday, in 75kmh winds, his oldest son Josh, 18, and Thomas had been on watch on deck when the mast suddenly fell to the deck "with a crash and a bang".

Josh watched as the heavy mast missed hitting Thomas "by inches. It came so close to killing him. He was in shock after it happened".

The family issued distress calls and an air force Hercules was sent to their aid.

The Noumea-based La Glorieuse then headed to their rescue.

Dr Bradfield, an Auckland Hospital anaesthetist, emotionally recounted the moment his family saw the plane.

"That was an amazing experience," he said. "We set off a flare and they identified us. They circled overhead and they remained circling until the French Navy were there."

La Glorieuse kept vigil beside the damaged yacht overnight until the family could safely be transferred.

Because of severe damage, the decision was later made to scupper the family's beloved yacht. "We hung around to watch our vessel sink. That was very emotional for me," Dr Bradfield said.

La Glorieuse skipper Lieutenant Numa Durbec said it was hard to imagine how tough it would have been for the family battling such difficult conditions.

The rescue had been "an emotional experience" not just for the family, but for his ship's crew, Lieutenant Durbec said.

"When you are at sea, you never know what's going to happen. That's a big lesson in humility."

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