NSRI tackles multiple maritime emergencies along the Cape coastline
NSRI crews responded to multiple maritime incidents along the Cape coast over several days, including disabled boats, capsized craft and swimmers in distress.
Image: NSRI/ Facebook
National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) crews responded to a series of maritime emergencies and near-misses along the Cape coastline over several days, with incidents ranging from disabled vessels and capsized craft to swimmers appearing to be caught in rip currents.
The incidents, which unfolded between Thursday and Sunday along the Atlantic Seaboard and in False Bay, saw rescue crews, eyewitnesses and good Samaritans working together to ensure those involved reached safety.
On Thursday evening, NSRI Table Bay responded after a 26-foot motor boat with 10 people on board suffered motor mechanical failure offshore of Granger Bay. A local boater who came across the vessel raised the alarm and began towing the craft towards The Water Club.
NSRI Table Bay station commander Quentin Botha said the rescue craft Spirit of Day was launched while shore crew responded to assist.
“On NSRI’s arrival on the scene the local boater had reached The Water Club with the casualty boat under tow. We took over the tow with our NSRI rescue craft and successfully moored the casualty boat at her moorings,” Botha said.
Earlier that afternoon, rescuers were called to assist a fishing craft that had suffered motor mechanical failure about 10 nautical miles offshore of Gordons Bay with five crew members on board.
NSRI Gordons Bay launched the rescue craft Spirit of Surfski while NSRI Simons Town placed a second vessel on standby. Rescuers helped the skipper troubleshoot the problem and both motors were successfully restarted, allowing the vessel to return safely to Harbour Island under escort.
NSRI Gordons Bay station commander Ryan Holmes said the skipper was commended for swiftly raising the alarm.
At Kommetjie Beach on Friday afternoon, two teenagers aged 17 and 16 were brought safely to shore after appearing to be caught in rip currents. They were assisted by bystanders before rescue teams arrived.
Good Samaritan Dylan Rattray, 24, from Kommetjie, who was working at a nearby coffee stand, grabbed an NSRI pink rescue buoy and entered the water after noticing the teenagers in distress. With assistance from another unidentified bystander, both teenagers were brought back to the beach where paramedics assessed them. They required no further medical treatment.
In another incident on Friday evening, two young men on a single stand-up paddle board battled strong offshore winds near Cosy Bay at Oudekraal. Rescue swimmers responded after eyewitnesses reported them struggling about half a nautical mile offshore.
The pair eventually managed to reach the shore without assistance but were described as exhausted after paddling against the wind.
On Saturday, NSRI Simons Town responded to assist a solo yachtsman whose sailing vessel suffered rudder failure about 15 nautical miles south of Cape Point in the vicinity of Rocky Banks. Rescue craft Donna Nicholas towed the yacht safely to Simon’s Town, where it was moored at the False Bay Yacht Club.
During the same operation, rescuers were alerted to two paddlers whose double surf-ski had capsized about 500 metres east of Ark Rock. The paddlers, two local women, had deployed a distress flare and activated an emergency alert before being taken aboard a rescue vessel and brought safely to shore.
Rescuers were again called out on Sunday after a sailing dinghy capsized near the Kommetjie slipway with a father and his teenage son on the hull of the craft. Both were taken aboard a rescue boat and brought safely to shore before the dinghy was righted and recovered.
Later that afternoon, NSRI crews responded to reports of a sailing vessel taking on water offshore of the Port of Table Bay breakwater. The skipper and crew were able to continue sailing while bailing water and safely brought the vessel into Duncan Docks, where it moored without further incident.
The NSRI said several of the incidents ended safely thanks to early distress calls, rapid response by rescue crews and the actions of members of the public who raised the alarm.