Stranded tourists saved by mobile text message

JAKARTA (JP): Twelve foreign tourists and six cabin crew stranded on a yacht named the Ombak Indah which was forced off course in Lombok waters, West Nusa Tenggara, were rescued on Thursday after one of the tourists sent a mobile telephone text message to her boyfriend in England.

The yacht was carrying 10 British tourists, as well as one Australian and one New Zealand tourist, from Nusa Lembongan in Bali to Senggigi beach in Lombok early on Wednesday morning.

The engine failed in four-meter seas, allegedly due to big waves in Lombok waters. The weather in Lombok had been bad for a couple of days as a tropical cyclone with winds of between 50 kilometers per hour and 80 kilometers per hour pounded the area.

One of the British tourists, Rebecca Fyfe, tried to summon help with her mobile phone but failed, so she then sent a message "Contact Falmouth Coastguard, we need help - SOS," to her boyfriend Nick Hodgson in Britain, AFP reported.

Falmouth Coastguard, which is based in southwest England, is the station in England responsible for liaison with foreign rescue services.

Hodgson quickly called Fyfe and then contacted coastguard officials near London who relayed the message to Falmouth.

Falmouth officials could not reach anyone in Indonesia so the alert went to the Australian Maritime Search and Rescue Center in Canberra.

Through the Australian embassy, the SOS was finally passed to Jakarta, which sent a naval gunboat to Lombok.

Mataram Naval Base Commander Col. Pramono Hadi said that the tourists and the crew were all safe and had been evacuated to nearby Sedutan beach, Gangga subdistrict, West Lombok.

He said that he had received the information about the missing yacht around 5.30 p.m. and quickly set out to search for it on the Ujung Pangkah naval vessel.

The rescue mission also involved other vessels, including the Pandrong from Surabaya and Asia Jaya, which is owned by a travel bureau in Bali, as well as the local police and two helicopters owned respectively by mining company Newmont and the Denpasar unit of the National Search and Rescue Agency.

As of Thursday morning, the yacht had still not been found.

According to Pramono, the exact position of the yacht was only found after four of the tourists reached Sedutan beach using surfboards at 10 a.m.

"The tourists said that the yacht was stranded on rocks some 1.8 kilometers away from Sedutan, after been forced off course by huge waves and strong winds. The are still quite healthy and will be brought to the Mataram immigration office," Pramono said, as quoted by Antara.

Pramono added that he knew nothing as yet about the owner of the yacht.(hdn)