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Jeff Sutton, a sea captain with 45 years’ experience, spent Sunday night chained to the wheel of his beached vessel at Byron Bay, afraid government inspectors would evict him and chainsaw his yacht to pieces.
But Sutton has the wind in his sails again after a late reprieve gave him one last chance to dig Wyuna 1 out of the sands of Byron’s famous Belongil Beach, where it has been stranded since being swept ashore on May 2, and refloat her when high tide arrives at 8.40pm on Tuesday.
“It’ll work – we’ll get her out,” said Sutton, 63. “I believe by Wednesday morning people will be able to look along the beach and just see the beach again.”
Sutton padlocked himself to the craft on Sunday after being told NSW Maritime officers would dismantle his boat and have it removed at his own expense on Monday.
After he spent a cold and mostly sleepless night aboard the 12.8-metre vessel, authorities agreed that he could have the chance to free the boat with the help of contractors.
The plan, outlined to NSW Maritime authorities on Monday, is to dig the boat’s keel out of the sand, partially turn it around and attach tow-lines so it can be drawn back out to sea.
Sutton, who has been living in a borrowed caravan or sleeping in sandhills since the 20-tonne vessel ran aground nearly six weeks ago, said negotiations to free the boat had foundered several times on cost grounds.
“Their option would cost up to $200,000 and I haven’t got six bucks in my pocket,” he said.
A Transport for NSW spokesman said it was working with Sutton to get the boat off the beach this week.
“If the owner is unable to secure removal of the vessel, Maritime will engage a contractor and commence the removal from Belongil Beach,” the spokesman said.
“In situations like this, the vessel owner is given time to take appropriate action to remove the vessel if they have the means to do so. The owner of the vessel is responsible for the costs associated with its removal.”
Sutton had been sailing around Australia for nearly four years until May 2, when his anchor failed in rough seas.
He posted an apology online to the people of Byron Bay after Wyuna 1 washed onto their beach and, to his surprise, he was embraced by many.
People have brought meals, offered accommodation and even started a GoFundMe account to help fund the boat’s rescue.
“They just hugged me, and they haven’t let go,” the veteran sailor said.
The saga is just the latest episode in a long life at sea for Sutton, who first joined a ship’s crew as a teenager after he ran out of money on a road trip around Australia.
“In Darwin, out the back of the dole office, they had what we called the ‘slave market’, where you would line up for the chance of a day’s work or two.”
The skipper of a prawn trawler was initially sceptical about Sutton – the son of academic parents with scant history of outdoor work – but ended up offering him a place when he saw he could handle himself on deck.
It led to a long career fishing around Australia’s northern coasts on trawlers and dealing with the “mercenaries and getaways” who sometimes crewed them.
“I have to be two people – I’m Jeff when I’m on land, but out there I have to be Bluebeard to control out-of-control people,” he said.
“It’s been an interesting life, and I wouldn’t swap any of it for anything.”
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