Boat towed and a surprise rescue

At 10h55 on Saturday the 13th of April Shelly Beach duty crew were called out following a request for assistance from a 6 meter Catamaran motor boat, with 5 crew on board, reporting to be off Ramsgate, 8 miles south of Shelly Beach, with motor failure and requiring a tow.Mark Harlen, NSRI Shelly Beach station commander, said: 'Our Shelly Beach volunteers launched CALTEX ENDEAVOR and on arrival on-scene we found that another boat had already taken four of the crew off the casualty boat. They had been taken ashore and only the skipper was left behind. A towline was rigged from our rescue boat and we began to tow the casualty boat towards Shelly Beach, in the 10 knot North Easterly and 1.5 meter swell, when we came across a lone paddler in the water hanging onto his paddle-ski (which was capsized and heavily laden with water) drifting 1 mile off-shore.'We rescued the paddler, a man from Port Shepstone, and towed his paddle ski to shore.'The man told us that he had been adrift for over an hour and that in the cross shore wind he had been unable to get to shore after capsizing on the paddle-ski. He was very grateful for being rescued.'The boat that we had originally gone to assist was also brought safely ashore and the skipper of the boat required no further assistance.'