Incidents at Shelly Beach, Kommetjie and St Francis Bay:

SHELLY BEACH:Jerry Jackson, NSRI Shelly Beach station commander, said:At 08h12, Saturday, 10th December, NSRI Shelly Beach duty crew responded to Umzumbe following eye-witness reports of a suspected helicopter accident on the beach.On arrival on the scene the pilot of a helicopter found on the beach confirmed that he had landed on the beach to wait out bad weather and no assistance was required.Then at 08h37 our NSRI Shelly Beach duty crew prepared to launch the sea rescue craft Spirit of Dawn to assist the charter boat Rip Tide with motor mechanical failure off-shore of Shelly Beach but prior to launching our sea rescue craft the skipper of Rip Tide confirmed that he had managed to get ashore safely and no assistance was required.KOMMETJIE:Ian Klopper, NSRI Kommetjie station commander, said:At approximately 14h20, Saturday, 10th December, while on active duty at the boat slip way at Kommetjie we were alerted by the Transnet National Ports Authority of a wind surfer in difficulty 500 meters off-shore of Kommetjie.Launching our sea rescue craft IL Battello the wind surfer accepted our offer of assistance and we brought him safely ashore and recovering the man’s board and sail without incident.Then at 14h30 a Mercedes Benz and trailer, while recovering their boat from the slip way at the time, were swamped in the water.We used our sea rescue tractor to recover the Mercedes Benz, trailer and boat without incident.At the same time Stink Vissie, a 5 meter boat, with 3 men onboard, from Kraaifontein, aged in their 30’s and 40’s, crayfishing 100 meters off-shore of Kommetjie, was swamped by a wave and capsized despite the skipper throttling the motors to try to escape the wave.All 3 men were thrown into the water with one of the men falling onto the spinning motor propellors but anchor rope had tangled into the spinning motor at the same time stopping the motors from spinning as the man fell onto the motor propellors and he was not injured.We responded on an NSRI Kommetjie crewmans private boat Lalandi and our sea rescue craft IL Batello responded and the 3 crew were rescued from the water and brought to shore without incident.Our sea rescue craft Spirit of the Vines was launched and we righted and recovered the casualty boat safely.The 3 men were not injured and they required no further assistance.ST FRANCIS BAY:Sarah Smith, NSRI St Francis Bay station commander, said: At 10h30, Saturday, 10th December, NSRI St Francis Bay dispatched the sea rescue craft Spirit of St francis II to patient evacuate a 24 year old fisherman, from Uitenhage, suffering a swollen femur on the Chokka fishing boat Santa Lara, 7 nautical miles off-shore of Jeffreys Bay.We brought the man safely aboard our sea rescue craft to the Port of St Francis and he has been transported to hospital by Private Care ambulance without incident. TO REPORT A SEA RESCUE EMERGENCY DIAL 112 FROM A CELLPHONE