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Rescue Boat - Source: Photos.com -
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Continuing high seas today have made it impossible to carry out a land-based search of the Tongan island of Late for two Australian men missing since their yacht was wrecked on Thursday.
The Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ) says three metre swells continued today, making it impossible to safely land search teams on the island by boat to look for the men.
Rough seas for the last two days have prevented a land-based search.
RCCNZ says it will review conditions tomorrow with a view to sending a team to search for the men on Late which is west of the island of Vava'u.
"Conditions will be reviewed in the morning when we hope the swell will have abated," said RCCNZ Search and Rescue Mission Coordinator John Dickson.
Two full days of aerial and on-water searching have so far failed to locate the two men, both in their sixties, who reported via a satellite phone call to a relative in Victoria, Australia, that they had run aground and their 50ft Bavaria yacht, Navillus, was breaking up.
An emergency locator beacon was activated at the same time, around 10.30pm on Thursday.
The yacht's wreckage was found the next day but extensive on-water searching following drift modelling undertaken by RCCNZ, as well as an aerial search of over 191 square nautical miles by an RNZAF Orion failed to find the men.
The police in Victoria are coordinating contact with the missing men's next of kin.