The Rip Curl search boat – Quest 1 – sinks off Sumatra
From Surfing Life Australia, words by Mimi LaMontagne
“My name is Pete and I was one of the guests on The Quest 1. We’re fine. But it was pretty crazy”
At around 9.30 this morning, the Ratu Motu and the Indies Trader III motored up to two six-man life rafts and a jetski, floating aimlessly in the Indian Ocean, carrying eight guests and five crewmembers.
The legendary Rip Curl Search boat, The Quest 1, had sunk to the bottom of the ocean. And these were its passengers.
“It happened at about 2:30am,” says Pete Nevins, a guest who had been on board The Quest 1. He and his fellow sink-mates are now sitting safely inside the Indies Trader III, en route to Padang. It just so happens that the renowned captain of the Indies Trader III, Martin Daly, is also the man who built Quest 1. A sad day for him, we’re sure.
“We were surfing Lance’s Left yesterday with a lot of people, and we wanted to go surf some uncrowded waves, so we decided to go to The Lighthouse. We got underway from Lance’s just after supper last, and we were supposed to be motoring all night. Then at about 2:30 in the morning, one of my buddies came and woke me up to see if I could take a look at what was going on.”
Pete has spent a bit of time aboard large ships at sea, so he knows a thing or two about the engines, emergency drills, etc.
Read the full article here – The Rip Curl Search Boat sunk today