By ELIZABETH VUVU
SEAFARERS in Manus have been urged to be practical and realistic when it comes to travelling in rough weather patterns in order to reduce the number of lives being lost out at sea.
Provincial administrator and provincial disaster chairman Wep Kanawi was speaking in relation to a boat mishap at Rambutso Island resulting in the death of a male village court official.
“There are certain people in Manus who pride their seamanship and I always ask them time and again to swallow their pride and take heed when travelling in rough weather but this advice is rarely taken,” he said.
Two weeks ago, 29 people together with one tonne of cargo loaded a 30 foot fibreglass boat and were travelling from Lonui Bridge to Rambutso Island during rough weather.
The boat was riding on one wave and the skipper did not see the other wave that ploughed into the boat, at the same time swamping it.
The village court official, hailing from Rambutso, lost his grip and fell into the sea.
When all the water in the boat was removed, the remaining passengers tried in vain to turn the boat around to rescue their colleague but the sea was too rough.
A week later, remains of his body was found on the shores of Rambutso.
His head was missing along with two of his limbs.
Mr Kanawi said last year the provincial government had allocated K10,000 for disaster operations but had gone beyond this amount after spending almost K55,000 to K60,000 for search and rescue operation alone.
He said the provincial government would not like to have a repetition of this in 2008 and had called for seafarers to take extra care when travelling in rough weather patterns.