Sara Smith, NSRI St Francis Bay station commander, said:At 09h30, Friday, 07th October, NSRI St Francis Bay duty crew were activated following a request for medical assistance from the Chokka fishing boat Maluti, reporting a 35 year old local crewman suffering lower abdominal pain.The Sea Rescue craft Spirit of St Francis II, having been in Cape Town for a substantial re-fit over the past few months, and having successfully completed the re-fit and sea trials, had left Cape Town the night before on a trailer, and she was due to be relaunched in St Francis Bay on Friday 07th October.fAlthough we had activated our auxiliary stand-by sea rescue craft, a private boat, we decided to phone the driver of the trailer to see how far they had progressed. The driver reported to be entering St Francis Bay at the same time and they arrived at our sea rescue base a few minutes later.Our NSRI St Francis Bay duty crew were already kitted up and standing by at the slip-way ready to launch on the patient evacuation call-out.The sea rescue craft Spirit of St Francis II was given a brief and thorough inspection by our crew and she was launched from the slip way straight into duty and we rendezvoused with the casualty craft 3.5 nautical miles from the Port of St Francis, 2.5 nautical miles off-shore of the Krom River.The patient, in a stable condition, was transferred onto our sea rescue craft Spirit of St Francis II and he was brought to the Port of St Francis and he has been transported to hospital in a stable condition by Private Care ambulance.Duty coxswain Stuart Obray and our duty crew that were on this call-out reported our re-fitted, refurbished sea rescue craft Spirit of St Francis II to be in tip top shape.
TO REPORT A SEA RESCUE EMERGENCY DIAL 112 FROM A CELLPHONE
