Joe Duggan (Reporter)
A BRITISH family who set sail from Palma were plucked to safety after becoming shipwrecked on a remote South Pacific Ocean reef.
Experienced sailor Bobby Cooper, partner Cheryl Kerr and their two children sent a distress signal to the New Zealand rescue centre 1,500 miles away when their vessel ran aground in heavy seas.
Miraculously, New Zealand-registered ship the Dona Catharina was sheltering close by and located the family 20 minutes later, reaching them by life raft in the morning.
“They were pretty distressed, but they’re all sleeping now,” said Dona Catharina captain Martin Vogel.
The family left Palma in October before travelling to Venezuela and on to the French Polynesian Marquesas Islands by early June.
