EAST LONDON:Geoff McGregor, NSRI East London station commander, said:On Wednesday morning, 30th November, NSRI East London duty crew dispatched the sea rescue craft Spirit of Lotto to patient evacuate a crewman of the fishing vessel Ebayi, suffering breathing difficulties, weakness and a suspected throat infection, off-shore of East London.On arrival on the scene the casualty crewman, a 46 year old local man, was transferred onto our sea rescue craft and brought into the Port of East London and he was transported to hospital in a stable condition for further treatment.
PLETTENBERG BAY:On Friday, 02 December, at 09h58, NSRI medics assisted an 87 year old female at Market Square in Plettenberg Bay after the lady tripped and fell over.NSRI crew treated the lady for minor cuts and bruises and transported her home safely.On Sunday, 04 December, NSRI Plettenberg Bay duty crew launched the sea rescue craft Leonard Smith following reports of a suspected blow up dinghy swept off the beach at Natures Valley and reportedly now a few nautical miles off-shore of Natures Valley.On arrival on the scene the craft was found to be the local deep sea fishing craft Snoopy and they were quite alarmed that NSRI had been activated to them since they were just fishing and it appears that there may have been some confusion at the beach as to what had happened and NSRI Plettenberg Bay declared the call-out a false alarm with good intentions.
ST FRANCIS BAY:Sara Smith, NSRI St Francis Bay station commander, said:At 10h41, Saturday, 03 December, NSRI St Francis Bay duty crew were activated following a request for medical assistance from the Chokka fishing boat Alchemist reporting a crewman onboard suffering breathing difficulties from Asthma at Aasvogels, 23 nautical miles from our St Francis Bay sea rescue base.The sea rescue craft Spirit of St Francis II was launched and on arrival on the scene the patient, an adult man, from Port Elizabeth, was transferred onto the sea rescue craft and medical treatment commenced while en route to our sea rescue base.On arrival in the Port of St Francis Private Care ambulance services paramedics took over care of the patient and the man has been transported to hospital by Private Care ambulance in a serious but stable condition for further treatment.
SIMON'S TOWN:Darren Zimmerman, NSRI Simon's Town station commander, said:At 08h56 NSRI Simon's Town duty crew were activated following reports of a boat taking water off-shore of Cape Point.The sea rescue craft Spirit of Safmarine III and Spirit of Surfski II were launched.The three crew of the casualty boat reported to be bailing water and gently proceeding towards the Millers Point slip way but unsure if they would make it that far.While responding to the scene Ski-boat Mobile reported that the casualty craft had come safely into Buffels Bay and they had arranged to get their trailer from Millers Point and they recovered their craft at Buffels Bay and they required no further assistance.Then NSRI monitored the craft Angle Cat with steering failure 20 nautical miles off-shore of Cape Point but they reported that they had managed to sort out the problem and were continuing requiring no further assistance. Ski-Boat Mobile continued to monitor them but no further assistance was required.Then at 11h06 the yacht Mystic Rhythm with only the solo skipper onboard reported to have gear box failure in the vicinity of the Roman Rock Lighthouse and our sea rescue craft responded to assist her and took her under tow bringing her safely into Simonstown harbour where once safely berthed no further assistance was required.
HOUT BAY:At 14h00 NSRI Hout Bay received a call from two Cape Town, Southern Suburbs, men, both aged 35, reporting to be hiking from Sandy Bay along the Karbonkelberg shoreline hiking trail to Hout Bay and having embarked on the hike at 06h00 fearing that they had grown tired they requested assistance, asking if sea rescue could send a rescue boat to collect them, but stressed that they were not in any life threatening danger, that they had plenty of food and water, and that they were pressing on with the hike despite raising the alarm.They estimated that they were nearing Duiker Island, near to the end of the hike, in the vicinity of De Brak, and NSRI Hout Bay monitored their progress, not wanting to risk transferring the 2 men onto a rescue boat from the shoreline in the heavy sea swells, but later, at 15h30, they called again for assistance and declared an emergency stating that they were hiking barefoot and that they had run out of water and that they were suffering from exhaustion.The NSRI Bakoven sea rescue craft Rotarian Schipper was on the water at the time conducting a routine exercise and they were diverted to investigate.On locating the two men on the hiking trail a sea rescue swimmer was deployed onto the shore where it was confirmed that both men were suffering from exhaustion and they appeared unable and unwilling to continue to hike the route barefoot.Metro Rescue Control dispatched the EMS/AMS Skymed rescue helicopter and NSRI Hout Bay duty crew prepared a landing zone at the NSRI Hout Bay sea rescue base and we launched our sea rescue craft Albie Matthews.The NSRI Bakoven rescue swimmer escorted both men to a more accessible part of the hiking trail in preparation for the helicopter rescue operation.In a technical rescue operation EMS rescue technicians were hoisted to the casualties from the helicopter and both men were hoisted into the helicopter and airlifted to the NSRI Hout Bay sea rescue base.Following rehydration therapy and rest arrangements were made for them to be collected from the sea rescue base, they were not injured and they required no further assistance.
Photograph from NSRI Bakoven shows the EMS/AMS Skymed rescue helicopter in the rescue off Karbonkelberg
TABLE BAY:At 16h34, Saturday, 03 December, NSRI Table Bay duty crew were activated following reports of the local yacht Apricot in difficulties off-shore of the Table Bay Port breakwater.Howard Godfrey, NSRI Honorary Life Governor, and his son Jeremy, an NSRI Bakoven crew member, out to sea on their 8.8 meter rigid inflatable boat Gemini One with two guests, at 15h30, had witnessed the yacht Apricot, with two crew onboard, experiencing difficulties with a blown out spinnaker and in some trouble after they had drifted towards the breakwater off Granger Bay and their yacht had appeared to have suffered a broken rudder and displaying a loose flying spinnake in the 25 knot Westerly wind.Howard offered assistance and Jeremy was put aboard the casualty boat to help and Howard rafted his craft Gemini One alongside Yacht Apricot and commenced to take casualty Yacht, breasted up alongside Gemini One, towards the Victoria Basin whilst the NSRI Table Bay duty crew were responding.NSRI Table Bay sea rescue craft Spirit of Vodacom and Spirit of Day were launched, said Ian Gross, NSRI Table Bay duty coxswain.On arrival on the scene, in the vicinity of the Robben Island Ferry moorings we took over assistance of the casualty boat from Howard on Gemini One and we towed the casualty yacht without incident to a safe mooring at Royal Cape Yacht Club and no further assistance was required.The crew of Gemini One are commended for their assistance.
GORDON'S BAY:Alan Meiklejohn, NSRI Gordon's Bay station commander, said:NSRI Gordon's Bay dispatched a sea rescue vehicle at 20h11, Saturday, 3 December, to monitor the progress of a rubber-duck suffering motor mechanical failure with 4 men onboard and being towed towards Harbour Island by a charter fishing boat.The rubber-duck was brought into Harbour Island without incident and no assistance was required.
PORT ELIZABETH:Ian Gray, NSRI Port Elizabeth station commander, said:NSRI Port Elizabeth dispatched the sea rescue craft Eikos Rescuer IV following reports that the Transnet National Ports Authority had dispatched the Chokka fishing vessel Squidder to assist four persons clinging onto the upturned hull of their capsized boat, In for Fun, 1.5 nautical miles off-shore of the Port of Port Elizabeth.On NSRI’s arrival on the scene all four crew of the capsized craft, the skipper/owner a South African man, two Romanian men and a British female were found safe on the fishing vessel and their capsized boat remained in the water.The casualties were taken ashore aboard Squidder and we towed their capsized boat to the Darby Venture Crane which was used to right the boat and the righted casualty craft we then towed to Pedsac slip way where it was recovered.We believe the boat capsized after lines they had in the water had fouled their motors causing the boat to be swamped by water and rolling over and none of the four were injured and they required no further assistance.
TO REPORT A SEA RESCUE EMERGENCY DIAL 112 FROM A CELLPHONE
