Murray Double sailed his boat Greeka solo from Tauranga to Dunedin when he got it in 2006.
Antje van der Linden was writing a note when she glanced at her computer and saw a news story about a body found at Deborah Bay.
She knew “straight away” it was her husband of 35 years.
Murray Double, 68, had been out at the marina north of Port Chalmers, near Dunedin, to check on his boat after bad weather.
“And then he didn’t come home for dinner,” van der Linden said.
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Double’s body was found by a member of the public who had called police after he was spotted floating in the water next to the jetty at 5.20pm on Tuesday.
Police named Double on Saturday, saying the death was not considered suspicious and will be referred to the coroner.
Van der Linden said he could have slipped, tripped or suffered a medical event.
“We don’t know what happened.”
The former Southlander was a keen boatsman and while the thought of something going wrong was in the back of her mind when Double would head out to places like Stewart Island, van der Linden never expected anything to happen in the marina.
“It was so unexpected.”
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Murray Double was a homebody who was fascinated by high-tech machines and computers, his wife says.
Double had received a message on Tuesday afternoon saying there was weather damage at the marina.
He went out to check and van der Linden assumed he’d be away for a few hours.
She went to the supermarket and cooked, but when it started getting dark she tried to call and couldn’t get Double on the phone.
She was busy writing him a note to say that she was going out to look for him – in case he arrived home while she was away – when she saw the article.
So instead van der Linden stayed put and waited for police to confirm the news.
Double was born in central Southland, but was sent to school in Christchurch as a teen when his mechanical engineering ambitions outgrew the rural education of the time.
He spent time abroad in Europe before settling into a job at what’s now Scott Technology in the 1980s.
Hamish McNeilly/Stuff
A member of the public notified police after seeing Murray Double’s body floating in the water next to the jetty at Deborah Bay.
He briefly ran his own business before helping set up Datum Engineering, where he was still involved with training even after his retirement.
“He was really into the high-tech machines,” van der Linden said.
She describes Double as “just a genuine person” who was always helping his neighbours.
While he had enjoyed the outdoors in his younger years, her quiet spoken husband had become a homebody in his later years.
“He wasn’t a big socialite,” van der Linden said.
The couple share a son together.
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