WEDNESDAY 2nd January 2013
Call outs for Agulhas, Table Bay, Port Alfred, Shelly Beach, Plettenberg Bay, Durban and Strandfontein:
STATION 14 PLETTENBERG BAY:
At 14h50 on the 2nd January 2013 the Plettenberg Bay NSRI volunteers were called out for a drowning in progress in front of The Dunes caravan park at Keurbooms beach.
The Plettenberg Bay Sea Rescue boats Airlink Rescuer and Sally Joan were launched and our volunteers also responded in their private boat. Bay Care Ambulance service was also activated.
When the NSRI volunteers arrived on scene they found that a 50 year old German tourist, who was on holiday on the Garden Route, had been pulled out of the water and CPR was in progress.
The Plettenberg Bay NSRI duty crew took over the CPR and he was then handed over to the Bay Care ambulance crew and transported to the Plettenberg Bay Medi Clinic hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.
At 16h22 the Plettenberg Bay volunteers were again called out, this time for a boat overturned in the river mouth. Airlink Rescuer and Sally Joan were launched as well as a NSRI Plettenberg Bay volunteers’ private boat.
Four holiday makers were helped out of the water and their upturned boat was towed to the shore. It is the second time that this same boat has needed rescuing. The first was three days ago when its steering appeared to have failed - also in the Keurbooms river mouth.
STATION 30 AGULHAS ( TWO CALL OUTS):
At 11h50 on the 2nd January 2013 the Agulhas NSRI volunteers were called out for a drowning at Arniston. The rescue boat I&J Rescuer II was hitched up to the Sea Rescue vehicle and towed around to Arniston. The Fire and Rescue helicopter stationed at Bredasdorp was also activated.
According to Reinard Geldenhuys, Agulhas NSRI station commander, the lifesavers on duty at the beach saw a person in difficulty but were not able to get to him in time. The Fire and Rescue helicopter and NSRI volunteers searched until 14h19 when the case was handed to the SAPS.
The body of an 18 year old man from Arniston was recovered at about 13h00 on Thursday 3 January.
At 14h25 on the 2nd January, the Agulhas volunteers were again called out, this time for a person on a tractor tube being blown out to sea from Struisbaai main beach.
I&J Rescuer II was launched seven minutes later and at 14h45 the NSRI volunteers lifted a 29 year old woman from Brackenfell from her tube onto the rescue boat.
She had blown 1,5 km off the beach in the strong wind that was prevailing at the time. According to Reinard Geldenhuys, Agulhas NSRI station commander, she was extremely relieved to see the NSRI as she was not sure that anyone had seen her being blown out to sea.
STATION 20 SHELLY BEACH
At 16h16 SAPS Search and Rescue asked Station 30 Shelly Beach to help with the search for a 57 year old Johannesburg man who had disappeared in the water at Uvongo. According to Shelly Beach station commander, Mark Harlen, the rescue boat Le Jenmar I was hitched up to the rescue vehicle and towed to Uvongo but as the NSRI volunteers arrived on scene the SAPS divers found the mans body in the surf zone.
STATION 05 DURBAN:
At 21h55 on Wednesday 2nd January the Durban NSRI duty crew were called out by Durban’s Port Control for a craft that was reported to be sinking in the harbour near the Sugar Terminal in the Turning Basin Area. The SAPS Waterwing had already been called to assess the situation and were with the boat.
According to Durban station commander Clifford Ireland, the owner of the boat, a four metre ski boat named Yaallahu, had packed up from fishing in the bay and was making his way from the Sugar Terminal back to the Point Yacht Club slipway when he was swamped by a wave and then blown towards the centre sand bank.
He called Durban Port Control via cell phone who sent the SAPS Waterwing to investigate. They found the boat semi-submerged on the sand bank and attempted to pull it free.
It was pulled into the middle of the channel where it started to sink.
Both casualties, local Durban men 46 and 57 years old, got onto the SAPS vessel.
The Sea Rescue boat Megan II was launched at 22h30 and found that the craft “Hook Up” had attached a line to the casualty but were forced to cut it when the vessel sank.
At 00h05 the NSRI volunteers dropped an anchor and marking rope in the area that the vessel sank so that the position could be located this morning ( 03 December 2013).
The NSRI volunteers closed the Sea Rescue base at 01h15.
The Harbour Master has closed the Maydon Wharf Channel and will send the floating crane and Transnet divers at first light to try and remove the boat from the channel.
STATION 16 STRANDFONTEIN:
At 20h34 on the 2nd of January the NSRI Strandfontein duty crew were called out for flares fired in the Macassar area. The rescue boat Spirit of Grandwest was prepared and station commander Mario Fredericks drove to the area to assess the situation.
Mario was told by fishermen at Monwabisi that flares and fireworks were fired from the beach between Monwabisi and Macassar. This correlated what members of the public who were at Macassar said and the NSRI Strandfontein volunteers were stood down at 21h50.
STATION 11 PORT ALFRED:
At 08h00 this morning the body of the 22 year old Amanzimtoti man, who had been caught in a rip current at Kasouga and drowned on the 28 December, was recovered at Shelleys Beach, 25 km from Kasouga.
STATION 3 TABLE BAY
At 14h20 the Table Bay volunteers were called out for a man in the water in front of the V&A hotel. He was seen by three independent eyewitnesses to be in difficulty.
According to Pat van Eyssen, NSRI Table Bay station commander, a charter boat rushed over to help him, but the man disappeared under the water before they got there. his T shirt and cap were recovered. The SAPS divers, SAPS Waterwing and the Sea Rescue boat Rotary Endeavor all responded.
While the search by the SAPS divers was underway the movement of boats in the Alfred basin was limited. The SAPS dive unit located the body of an unidentified African male in his 20s at 16h18.
Picture Paula Leech.
