The Naval Service personnel and Garda divers today resumed their efforts to search the fishing vessel that sank near Glandore harbour in west Cork in the hope the bodies of five missing crew will be found on board.
Air and sea searches were carried out today near Union Hall despite bad weather making conditions difficult. Heavy seas yesterday prevented divers from searching the wreck.
Naval Service divers had hoped to get down to the French-built Tit Bonhomme near Adam Island at the entrance to Glandore harbour yesterday afternoon but two-metre swells driven by southeasterly winds made it unsafe. The 21-metre steel-hulled trawler is listing to port and lying in up to 12 metres of water.
The LÉ Niamh remained moored near the mouth of the harbour today to co-ordinate the surface sea search with the RNLI lifeboats from Baltimore and Courtmacsherry as well as the Irish Coast Guard helicopters from Shannon and Waterford. They were joined by over a dozen local trawlers from Union Hall.
Volunteers from the Irish Coast Guard and West Cork Civil Defence searched the shoreline.
The search has been suspended until tomorrow.
Relatives of skipper Michael Hayes (52) and crew Kevin Kershaw (21), Said Mohammed (23), Wael Mohammed (35) and Attea Ahmed Shaban (26) have gathered on the pier at Union Hall awaiting news of the search.
They were joined yesterday by the sole survivor, father-of-three Abdul Mohammed (43), who, upon discharge from Cork University Hospital yesterday morning, travelled to Union Hall to meet the families of the missing men.
The families of two of the men who were on the Tit Bonhomme today lit candles and dropped flower petals into the sea on a visit to the site.
Paddy Kershaw, father of Kevin (21), and Caitlin Ni Aodha, the wife of experienced skipper Michael Hayes, made the trip to the edge of an exclusion zone in the sea off Adam's Island.
The families could see the top of the wheel house of the sunken fishing boat where it is feared the bodies of the men remain.
As respects were paid, friends of the three missing Egyptian fishermen continued to press the Navy to send a dive team on to the wreck despite worsening Atlantic swells.
"He was an absolute diamond. I can't put it in any other words," Mr Kershaw said of his son.
"Everywhere he went he made an impact. He was very involved in the community down here and if you met Kevin he always went out of his way to make people happy. He had that glow about him that if you met him you'd never forget him.
"Anyone who ever met Kevin said he always had a positive attitude in life and would go out of his way to help them and he had such an atmosphere about him."
Ms Ní Aodha, spokeswoman for the Irish Fishermen's Organisation, was held tightly by relatives as they looked at debris strewn around the crash site.
Gardaí spoke with Abdul Mohammed, who had just come up from below-deck to join his brother Said Mohammed and skipper Michael Hayes in the wheelhouse at approximately 5.45am on Sunday as the vessel was nearing home.
It was returning from a three-day fishing trip and Mr Hayes had given his customary instruction to be woken when 5km from Glandore as the channel into the harbour can be notoriously tricky to negotiate.
It is understood that Said Mohammed and Mr Hayes were in the wheelhouse when the boat went on to rocks on the southern side of Adam Island and a huge wave of water swept through the wheelhouse.
Searchers hoped the wooden wheelhouse had remained substantially intact and the bodies of Mr Hayes and Said Mohammed were still in it, while they also hoped the bodies of the other three were in the bunk area.
Paddy Kershaw spoke of his son Kevin’s excitement at going to sea for the first time and enthusiasm for becoming a fisherman as he revealed how he sent him a text on Friday as he left port.
“The message was ‘Dad, Ring me, quick’ but it was more of an excited message than a troubled message – he was a diamond, he shone like a bright light. He had that shine about him and all the people here in Clonakilty and back in Dublin loved him.”
Additional reporting: PA