Fishermen selfless in searching for comrade

FISHERMEN are spending thousands of euro of their own money each day in order to keep searching for signs of the stricken Honeydew II, which sank more than a week ago.

The fuel to keep a boat going for an entire day’s search costs anywhere between €1,000 and €3,000 depending on the size of the vessel.

In addition the boats are missing out on an average of €12,000 — what a week’s catch is worth to them.

John O’Mahony, captain of the Sean Mair II, is one of the skippers who has spent much of the last week looking for some sign of his friend Ger Bohan and crewman Tomasz Jagla in the seas around Mine Head.

“In fairness all the support has been given by the fishermen without any cribbing, they are just getting stuck in,” he said. “The reality of how much it has cost will set in afterwards when they will sit down and say ‘we have lost this much and we have a lot to do to make up for it’,” he said.

He pointed out that some of the men own new boats and so would have significant repayments to make on top of the cost of the fuel and the revenue lost.

John is heading back to Dunmore East today where he and a few of his colleagues are going to rent houses so they can take part in the shore search until the weather allows them to go back out to sea.

Yesterday, the 16 Cork boats, which have been combing the seas around Mine Head since the accident, took the opportunity afforded to them by the weather-induced cancellation of the sea operation to head back to their bases and refuel and prepare the boats for when they are able to return to sea.

In Kinsale there were six vessels moored, including French vessels which had volunteered their support in the search. Kinsale harbour master Phil Devitt said there were more in Cork and Union Hall, all prepared to rejoin the search.

Eamon O’Neill, a friend of Honeydew II skipper Ger Bohan said he will be driving Thomas Jagla’s wife Annetta to Dunmore East this morning so she can meet the lifeboat crews and also see some of the personal effects which have washed up on the shore.

“Annetta is as well as can be expected, better than before,” he said. “There was a nice Mass last night which was said in Polish and English and she was able to say a couple of words at that. It seemed to help.”

While Annetta will return to Kinsale this evening, Eamon said he will remain in Dunmore to help in the search for his friend.