© Reuters

Indonesian sailors scrambled from a stricken navy sailing ship when it ran aground in heavy seas on the Queensland coast on its way to Sydney for the APEC summit.

Cold and wet, the 18 sailors were taken in by locals and the Australian navy ahead of efforts on Friday to salvage the vessel.

The sailors were forced to jump from the 35-metre, three-masted sail training ship KRI Arung Samudera after it was swept ashore on Rainbow Beach, near Gympie in south-east Queensland, early on Thursday morning.

The New Zealand-built schooner had been due in Brisbane on Friday from Cairns.

It was planning to join six other tall ships in Sydney on September 2 to mark the start of Sydney’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

The Australian Navy says it’s likely an Indonesian ship which has run aground in south-east Queensland after encountering “the perfect storm” can be salvaged tomorrow.

source: The Age

Tags : salvage, schooner, Rainbow Beach, KRI Arung Samudera