Yes And! Creating the Future, Schooner Nina

Yes And web site

When I got involved in the Nina search I thought maybe I could help.  I do mostly media things and some political things.  How could I know, the shoe would nicely fit on the other foot?

The Nina is a 1928 American treasure with seven people aboard.  They are C.U. Professor Evi Nemeth, Kyle Jackson, Danielle Wright, Matthew Wootton, and the boat's owners, David Dyche, Rosemary Dyche and David Dyche IV.  This wonderful piece of American naval history along with her 7 crew went missing on June 4th, 2013.  Nothing has been seen of the Nina or crew since then.

Rob, a friend of Kyle Jackson's, posted in Kyle's sisters, Megan Jackson's blog page:

YES AND is a mantra for embracing the now and creating the future; for moving deeper into life; for being an active participant; for flowing with what the universe has to show you and reaching out to join it.

YES can be enthusiasm: YES! I want this! I love this! This is perfect.

YES can be acceptance: yes. This is happening. This is now. This is part of everything. This is.

AND can be the next step.  The moving forward.

AND can be adding on, expanding. More. Deeper.

It’s how we move through the world, step by step, first with a YES, and then following it up with AND. Again and again, until we get to where we are, and find ourselves saying again, YES AND.

How could I know, YES!  The universe has a lot to show me, if I am willing, and a lot for me to learn. 

Getting involved in the search for 7 precious lives brought me into contact with many more precious lives.  It has been a phenomenal learning and growing experience for me.  Honestly, when people who are desperately worried about their loved ones allow perfect strangers to participate at this level, you feel very honored they have placed so much confidence in you, and the fear of somehow letting them down is always there.  Some of the people I have never met in person, but it makes little difference.  I still feel like I have new brothers and sisters in my family.  For those I have met in person, I can say, everything in Texas really is bigger, even the hearts of the ones who were only there for a short time.

If you have the chance to volunteer for a search, expect the road to be a little bumpy at times.  You will likely be dealing with many family members at a very difficult time for them, who are dealing with all of the volunteers who wish the best but sometimes don't know what is the best, who are dealing with the officials who mean the best, but sometimes don't know what is the best, along with yourself, who wants the best but does not always know what is the best.  Participating in a search is, in part, a search for our personal, best.  For those who are looking for the YES in the universe, I promise you, your collective efforts will provide some of the most moving memories you will have.  Of course, the sweetest time will come with the AND.

AND?

I can see as plain as day when the Nina floats into the gaze of a dazing fisherman, surprised to see 7 lives prancing on deck, the fisherman wiping his eyes with his hands just to be sure the AND is real.  A Salvadorean's journey across the Pacific Ocean, Jose Salvador Alvarenga, has proven 14 months at sea with no provisions is possible.  Nothing has been seen or heard from the missing crew to suggest they are not out there now.  Why shouldn't I believe?  

Yes! And...

UPDATES ABOUT THE NINA SEARCH

Seven Facts About Schooner Nina Few People Know

There seems to be a bit of confusion about the Nina search.  For anyone new to the blog, 7 sailors, Matthew Wootton, Danielle Wright, Professor Evi Nemeth, Kyle Jackson and the Dyche family, David, Rosemary and David Jr. set sail across the Tasman Sea.  They encountered a terrific storm and have not been heard from since.  That was on June 4th, 2013, so it has been awhile.  So why are people still looking, and what can you do to help?

Ricky and Robin Wright, news.com.au photo

FACT NOT FICTION #1  The search was started late.  By the time the authorities got around to actually launching an aircraft to look for Nina, the potential search area had grown to a size slightly smaller than the Milky Way!

FACT NOT FICTION #2  Despite claims the search was "the largest search in the history of New Zealand", low probability areas were not searched at all and a few high probability areas were also not searched.

FACT NOT FICTION #3 Landlubbers and even most sailors can't envision how a crew could survive 7 months on a sailboat without provisions.  Experienced sailors like John Glennie who have actually been in the area say long term survival is possible.  Water is obtained from the frequent rain storms in the Tasman Sea.  The boat becomes a floating reef attracting a large variety of fish.

FACT NOT FICTION #4  If the Nina were really afloat, they would have jury rigged sails and rescued themselves.  Actually, the last text message indicates the sails had blown out.  Fuel for the newly installed engine was in limited supply.  To be sure, Captain Dyche and crew are doing all they can to save themselves, but if the weather was bad enough to blow out professionally made sails, and dis-mast the Nina, it has been bad enough to shred a jury rigged sail and mast system.  They don't have many sail lofts in the middle of the Tasman, eventually even the most ingenious crew will run out of material for masts, rigging and jury built sails.

FACT NOT FICTION #5  If the Nina survived the storms she was in, surely she would have floated to shore by now.  Maybe true, though some boats including an oyster barge last year have taken a year to float through the reverse circulating currents of the Tasman Sea.  If the Nina has floated to land, the question, what land?  There are thousands of small islands and reefs off the Australian coast.  The families ask ALL SAILORS, PILOTS, FISHERMEN AND CRUISE SHIP PASSENGERS AND CREW to please be on the lookout for the Nina not only in the ocean, but while passing remote landfalls.

FACT NOT FICTION #6  The remnants of the Nina were found off of Fraser Island, Australia.  A piece of the transom was seen with the letters "INA".  No one really knows if the remnants of the Nina were seen off of Fraser Island because the person who spotted the board with the letters "INA" didn't fish it out of the water.  Robin and Ricky Wright, parents of 19 year old crew member Danielle Wright, did a very thorough search of the area and found lots of flotsam, none of it appearing as the Nina.  IF you spot anything that appears to be the remnant of a boat, please fish it out of where ever you found it.  If you need assistance, the Australian Coast Guard or the New Zealand Coast Guard should be called, depending upon where you are.  



View Larger Map



The letters "INA" fit nicely into the word "Marina".  There are several marinas in the area.  The family expresses their deepest thanks to the person who provided the tip, and ask each of us to help solve the mystery of the Nina.  If you are not near the Tasman Sea, you can help by reminding people the search is still in progress; making a donation to help with the huge cost of search flights; if you are blessed with two hands, putting them together and asking for a higher power to reveal where the Nina is might prove to be the miracle that everyone is waiting for.

FACT NOT FICTION #7  While the families wish they had more support from the various RCC agencies, including a radio broadcast asking mariners to be watchful for a low lying craft in the water or evidence of a landing on remote islands, as well as support from the U.S. State Department and the NGA in satellite searches and rescue exercises while naval ships are in the area, the families remain extremely grateful for the efforts made by the various agencies. 

 Because the families have been hard at the search since the official search was suspended on July 5th, 2013, the families especially, Ricky and Robin Wright and Ian and Sue Wootton,  are in the best position to know what tactics would be most helpful in determining the location of the missing schooner, Nina.  The Texas Equusearch Lead Search coordinator Larry Slack,  Exeutive Search Advisor, Ralph Baird and their team also have a keen sense for the next best steps in finding the Nina.  However, neither the search team nor the families would ever want their requests for help to be misunderstood as a lack of gratitude for the efforts that have been made.  In analyzing the search efforts to date, their sole purpose is to find the Nina by identifying missing pieces in the puzzle, which should not be confused with a lack of appreciation for what has been done or a hidden desire to find fault out of spite.

7 Sailors Wait While The World Celebrates The Holiday

Cartoon Credit NZ Herald

There is both encouraging news and bad news in the search for the 1928 schooner, Nina, that went missing in the Tasman Sea on June 4th, 2013.  The bad news is as always, no one has heard or seen the Nina since she missed a scheduled check in with New Zealand weatherman Bob McDavitt.  The encouraging news mostly remains the same.  If the Nina was afloat on June 5th, 2013, then she is afloat today.

Of course, the naysayers claim there is no point in searching for the Nina today because the crew could not possibly survive after six months at sea.  I love naysayers because they are almost always wrong.  John Glennie, who survived 119 days afloat on the upside down Rose Noelle, says if the Nina survived the storm she was battling then, not only is the boat afloat, but the sailors are alive.  He says he would have been able to survive for an extended period of time if the Rose Noelle had not bumped into an Island on the East side of New Zealand saving Glennie and his three crew members.

Meanwhile, the families remain guarded in the information they are willing to release about the effectiveness of the original search.  Likewise, they say they have no confidence in further lobbying of the U.S. State Department which reportedly intervened to stop U.S. efforts to find the Nina.

 The U.S. State Department claims New Zealand says the boat sank so there is no reason to expend U.S. resources.  When the U.S. State Department says they are not experts in search and rescue they are right.  The sinking of the Nina is one of many scenarios postulated by the New Zealand authorities.  Other theories include a likely dis-masting rendering the Nina incapable of navigation.  The only thing that is clear, after the most thorough search in the history of New Zealand, not a single trace of the boat was found.  It is very rare for a boat to sink without coughing up clues.

Fortunately, not everyone is buying into naysayer claims.  Some private pilots are launching their own private search, Operation Nina, to check the barrier islands lying off the East coast of Australia.  Numerous boats lost in the Tasman Sea eventually landed on one of those islands or an Australian beach including the Scotch Bonnet in 2012, which was abandoned near the last know position of the Nina.

Some people have inaccurately reported Sailing Savoir Faire as an "activist website" with ulterior motives.  Frankly, we lean hard left on the side of the current government in most of our reporting.  However, as journalists, we are responsible for reporting the truth.  From our perspective, we don't think any of the peoples of New Zealand, Australia, England or the U.S. would be happy to learn 7 sailors are floating in the Tasman Sea in desperate need of help and the respective governments are spending their time passing the buck to each other rather than rolling up their sleeves. We must report exactly that.  

Lacking evidence of a sinking, the rational conclusion to make is the Nina is afloat and the sailors need immediate assistance.  All sailors might be wise to take the Nina case as a harbinger when contemplating the prospects for rescue while venturing into similar waters.

Public Appeals To RCC-NZ To Resume Search For Lost Nina

The Nina Families Remain Hopeful

Texas Equusearch (TES) and the family members of the crew of the schooner, Nina, lost in the Tasman Sea, released photographs of an image they hope is the Nina.  The image was obtained after tasking satellites to take pictures of the Tasman Sea where the 1928 American treasure disappeared along with the 7 hands aboard. TES and the families want the Rescue Coordination Center, New Zealand (RCC-NZ) to open a new search for the sailors.

The search has been intensive and well coordinated.  The satellite images are hosted on a crowd sourcing site called Tomnod.  TES and the families worked with Fort Collins based Digital Globe to take the photographs.  Over 16,000 people signed up to help review images.  All the hard work may now be paying off.

Mystery Boat, Is This The Nina?

So far, the RCC-NZ refuses to bend on opening a new search for the boat.  Under one of their theories, they say the boat sank.  However, sinking is one of six scenarios the RCC-NZ postulated about the Nina. Other scenarios include the possibility the boat is disabled and drifting or the sailors took to a life raft. The fact is, no evidence has ever been produced to prove the Nina sank, despite the largest search ever launched by the RCC-NZ.

The families say the Nina is floating in reverse circular currents of the Tasman Sea.  As proof, they point to John Glennie, who survived 119 days after his yacht, the Rose Noelle, capsized off of the East coast of New Zealand.  Officials gave up the search for Glennie and the family held a eulogy.  Still, Glennie and his 3 crew mates survived the ordeal, fishing for food and catching rain water for hydration.  Though the Nina disappeared on the West side of New Zealand, both the Rose Noelle and the Nina had problems on the same day of the year, June 4th, significant because it is winter time.

Bob McDavitt

TES and the families base their assertions on the efforts by a high tech team including volunteer NASA scientists, fluid hydrologists and geophysicists who study what happens to liquid, in this case, ocean water, and things which are deposited in them.  Figuring out where the Nina could have drifted to has been a monumental task.  However, TES has employed new methods to use existing SAROPS drift analysis software along with the tasking, for the first time ever, of satellites over the Tasman Sea in the search of a private boat.

According to an article in the New Zealand Herald, meteorologist Bob McDavitt, the satellite images could not be ruled out as representing the Nina.  McDavitt was advising friend and Nina crew member Evi Nemeth, and had the last known conversation by text with the missing sailors.  People from all over the world support the reopening of the search for the missing sailors.

Texas Equusearch is a non-profit organization founded by Tim Miller to locate missing people.  TES uses high technique tactics plus volunteers to help the authorities locate and close old missing person's cases.  TES has been credited with locating over 300 people alive which law enforcement has been unable to find.  The Texas based organization has also been able to find over 100 people who were missing and deceased, including a Navy t-34 pilot.  None of the TES volunteers are paid, including the Nina search Executive Adviser, Ralph Baird.  However, the advances made by the families will help all sailors who become lost in the Tasman Sea.

Press Conference Louisiana, Texas, For Nina 7, Tomnod Needs You and Flights

INDEX TO PAGES:

It is taking so long to update all 40 pages to date, I have elected a general index.  To navigate to a different page, simply go to the index.  

Tim

TWO EVENTS:

 There will be a NATIONAL PRESS/EquuSearch/families press event in Lafayette, LA at 2:00PM CDT Thursday, August 15, 2013 at Home Bank, Lafayette

NATIONAL PRESS major, coordinated, national press event in Houston/Kemah, TX on Thursday, August 22, 2013 at 11:00AM. 


For details contact Texas EquuSearch at +1 (281) 309-9500 and ask about the NINA 7 PRESS EVENT. Guest appearances by sailor survivors John Glennie and Steve Callahan.



Don't we owe all human beings our best effort to find them when they are lost?

You can help!  

Tomnod Saves Lives-Please try this needle in the haystack game and help us find the Nina 7!

Your Donation Counts

Call the Secretary of State and ask them to support Equusearch in the effort to find the Nina 7!

Tim Miller started Texas Equusearch as a way of giving back to his community.  You can give back by joining the search for the seven sailors lost on the Nina.  Those are Danielle Wright, Evi Nemeth, Kyle Jackson, Matthew Wootton, David Dyche, Rosemary Dyche, David Dyche IV.

Kiwi Air landing role Nina Search

News:  The airplanes are back in the air looking for the Nina 7!  The cost is about 6 times per hour what they pay a high priced doctor.  The flights are flying in an area identified to be the most likely to hold the yacht, Nina.  



The aircraft is basing out of Lord Howe Island to reduce the distance to the search grid.  The countries of New Zealand and Australia have equipment that is more suited to aerial searches over the ocean but refuse to task their equipment in the search for the Nina.  The U.S. has ships in the area on maneuvers including aircraft but also refuses to support the search for the Nina.




In 1989, the yacht, Rose Noelle, capsized off of the coast of New Zealand.  The search was closed and they even had a eulogy for one of the sailors.  It was 118 days later when the crew floated to land.  After the sailors made landfall they were accused of creating a hoax by embarrassed authorities.  



Divers explored the Rose Noelle wreck site where she broke up on the rocks.  They confirmed the Rose Noelle met her end on the rocks of a New Zealand coast full of personal effects no one would have left behind.  The sailors who had lived through hell for months, forgotten on the high seas, were exonerated.



Captain David Dyche, a professional mariner, will be keeping a log of every significant event that transpires aboard the Nina.  When she washes up on land the world will know exactly how every crew person fares through careful documentation.
  


 In 2012, the yacht Scotch Bonnet, was abandoned North of the last known location of the Nina.  The yacht, a Swan 41, was caught in the circular currents in the Tasman Sea for five and a half months.  She eventually drifted up onto an Australian beach.

Please Give to the Nina Fund!

There is no evidence the yacht sank except authorities have not been able to find her, which is not unusual for the Tasman Sea.  The families and their search advisor ask the U.S. State Department to support them in the search for the Nina.    That can best be done by first listening to the advice of the private search coordinator and advocating for the lives of the Nina 7 waiting for rescue.


If it was your mother, son, daughter, brother, spouse or significant other, would you expect less?

Please donate to the Nina Fund;
Please checkout our Tomnod site;
Please call the Department of State, (202)-647-4000.  Ask them to go to bat for the Nina 7.

INDEX TO PAGES

BACK TO PAGE 1

Nina Search Ends, Seeking Dyche, Jackson, Wright, Wooton, Nemeth

Pg 1  The Search Suspended

Page 2  The Story

Trimming Sail

Page 3  About the Nina
Page 4  Dyche Family Page
Page 5  Evi Nemeth
Page 6  Matt Wootton
Page 7  Kyle Jackson
Page 8  Danielle Wright
Page 9  RCCNZ
Page 10  To the Families
Page 11  What Went Wrong
Page 12 Last Message From Nina Crew
Page 13  Family of Nina Crew Appeal For Search Funds
Page 14  Family Anxious For Search To Begin
Page 15  RCCNZ Less Than Cooperative in New Nina Search
Page 16 Third Day Of Nina Search

Page 17  New Zealand Responds

Page 18  Equusearch Seeks Satellite Specialist
Page 19  A New Era Of Cooperation
Page 20  Wild Speculation No Help
Page 21  Sailboat Washes Up On Beach
Page 22  Nina Fund

Page 23  Nina Makes Prime Time
Page 24  Kyle Jackson, Hiya Mom!
Page 25  U.S. Coast Guard Endangers Lives of Nina 7
Page 26  Equusearch, Nina Families, Ask For Help
Page 27  Apathy From US Officials
Page 28  Families Seek More Funding

Page 29  Standing Up To Uncle Sam

Page 30  Possible New Location of Nina

Page 31  Reson For Hope Rescue After 76 Days At Sea
Page 32  Breaking News Delayed
Page 33  Positive Despite The Negatives
Page 34  Tomnod Saves Lives

Page 35  Holding
Page 36  Tasman Takes Two

Page 37  91 Days Lost At Sea
Page 38  Your Calls Needed

Sailors Presumed Lost At Sea

Seven Man Crew Living Dream

At Port in Whangarei  

David Dyche, 58; his wife, Rosemary Nelson Dyche, 60; their son David Dyche IV, 17; Kyle Jackson, 27; Danielle Wright, 18; Briton Matthew Wootton, 35 and Evi Nemeth, 78 set sail in a 1928 schooner from the New Zealand Bay of Islands on May 28th, 2013. The crew planned on a 14 day voyage to Newcastle, Australia.

The boat and it's crew have not been seen since.

On June 3rd, Evi Nemeth conveyed a disturbing message to meteorologist Bob McDavitt using Nemeth's satellite phone. Bob McDavitt is a nationally known meteorologist in retirement who assists yacht crews to navigate difficult weather.

Professor Evi Nemeth

"The weather's turned nasty, how do we get away from it?" asked retired University of Colorado professor, Evi Nemeth.

McDavitt asked Nemeth to call back in 30 minutes so he could better advise them.  Nemeth did call back.

McDavitt said, "She was quite controlled in her voice, it sounded like everything was under control." 

McDavitt further indicated Nemeth was obviously worried about the conditions or she never would have called in the first place.  Perhaps if Bob McDavitt knew who Evi Nemeth was, he might have paid more attention.

Nina

During his brief conversation with Nemeth, McDavitt advised the Nemeth crew they should steer South and prepare for a storm with high winds and seas.  He also advised Professor Nemeth the crew might want to heave-to, a process of putting the boat in a sort of sailor's limbo or holding pattern, while the storm passed.


     On June 3rd, McDavitt received his last communication from Evi.

"ANY UPDATE 4 NINA? ... EVI."

     Little did McDavitt know, the final message he received from Nemeth was not the final message sent.  A message retrieved later revealed the Nina in heavy seas and facing an uphill climb.

McDavitt attempted multiple text messages advising the crew aboard Nina about the storm which had overcome the crew of the Nina.

    

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

-->