SafeTrx alert leads to successful NSRI Ballito rescue of jet-skier

Mike Bishop, NSRI Ballito station commander, said: At 06h04, Saturday, 20 December, NSRI Ballito were alerted by NSRI EOC (Emergency Operations Centre) of a SafeTrx emergency alert activation from a local jet-ski skipper.

It was determined that the vessel had suffered battery failure and the skipper was requesting a tow.

Our duty crew responded and launched the NSRI rescue craft JayTee III at Salmon Bay ski-boat club and began making way to the GPS coordinates as indicated by the SafeTRX app.

While we were responding our NSRI EOC made contact with casualty skipper who reported that he had deployed a drogue (to slow down drift) and he was not in any immediate danger.

Our rescue craft located the casualty vessel North of the Umdloti launch site, approximately 1 nautical mile offshore.

The skipper was taken onboard our rescue craft, and a towline was established to the jet-ski.

An NSRI coxswain was put aboard the jet-ski to assist with steering, and the craft was towed to the Umdloti launch site without incident.

Members of Umdloti ski-boat club had set up a vehicle on the beach with a tow line attached in preparation to assist NSRI to beach the casualty craft.

The vessel was towed through the surf zone towards the beach where the Umdloti ski-boat club standby vehicle deployed a swimmer and attached a rope to the jet-ski and the vehicle towed the casualty craft onto the beach.

Our NSRI rescue craft beached reuniting the casualty skipper and his fishing gear with his vessel and no further assistance was required.

With the assistance of the Umdloti ski-boat club members we relaunched our rescue craft and returned to base.