The Mysterious Disappearance of the Patanela
On October 16, 1988, a boat named “The Patanela” set sail from Freemantle, Australia for a month-long voyage to Airlie Beach, on the other side of the country. On board the 63-foot schooner was Alan Nicol, the wealthy businessman who owned the boat. Nicol was accompanied by an experienced skipper, 52-year-old Ken Jones, as well as Jones’ 50-year-old wife Noreen and their daughter, Ronnalee. Nicol also hired two crew members for the voyage, 21-year-old Michael Calvin and 23-year-old John Blissett.
Ten days after The Patanela left Freemantle, the boat docked at Port Lincoln because Nicol and Ronnalee had to depart due to previously scheduled work commitments. The plan was for Nicol to reunite with Blissett, Calvin, and the Jones’s in Sydney two weeks later where Nicol would then sail the boat with his family for a vacation to the Whitsunday Islands. However, the Patanela never made it to Sydney. The ship, and those on board, were never seen again.
One of the only clues as to what happened was a series of three radio communications, documented in John Pinkney’s book Great Australian Mysteries. On November 8, 1988, a radio dispatcher with the Overseas Telecommunications Commission received a call from Ken Jones at 12:57 am. With no signs of distress in his voice, Jones told the OTC dispatcher:
“I believe we’ve run out of fuel…we’ve hoisted our sails and were tacking out to the east, tracking about zero-eight-zero…our intention is to tack out for a couple of hours, then tack back in. We may need some assistance in the morning to get back into Sydney Harbour.” Then, an hour later, Jones called again. He asked the dispatcher for a weather report and directions to the town of Moruya. This was odd, because Moruya was not in the direction of the boat’s destination. The last call to the OTC occurred 15 minutes later. According to the OTC dispatcher, he heard the same voice from the previous two calls but the voice sounded “faded and crackled.” The dispatcher believed he heard Jones say “three hundred kilometers South? Is it? South?” before the call was cut short.
The next clue wouldn’t emerge until 2007. On December 31, The Waideman family decided to take a swim in a remote location in Western Australia. While getting in the water, Sheryl Waideman stumbled across a half-buried bottle of rum with a note inside. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the note read:
“Hi there. Out here in the lonely Southern Ocean and thought we would give away a free holiday in the Whitsunday Islands in north Queensland, Australia. Our ship is travelling from Fremantle, Western Aust, to Queensland to work as a charter vessel."
Written in the top left corner of the note was the date, October 26 1988, and location of the Pantanela. It was signed with a “See Ya Soon—John.”
When the boat was reported missing in 1988, investigators did not take it seriously. In fact, there’s little evidence that any substantial investigation was done at all. This leaves room for speculation even 25 years after the boat disappeared. Many believe that the boat was hijacked to smuggle drugs, and that the lack of police investigation pointed to signs of a cover-up. However, no physical evidence has been able to support that theory. To this day, the fate of the Patanela and the four members on board remains unsolved.
