NSRI spokesman Craig Lambinon said NSRI Still Bay and NSRI Mossel Bay duty crew were activated at 6.55pm on Saturday following a request for assistance from the yacht Tatiana, with two men on board, both from Mossel Bay, reporting rudder failure to their yacht and unable to steer, heading towards Mossel Bay.
NSRI Still Bay launched the sea rescue craft Spirit of St Francis and took the yacht under tow in a 25-knot southerly wind and a choppy, confused sea state, and towed the yacht to the shelter of Still Bay.
NSRI Mossel Bay launched the sea rescue craft Rescue 15 and arrived on the scene at midnight, taking over the tow from NSRI Still Bay and towing the yacht to Mossel Bay, arriving without incident at around 11am on Sunday.
“Once safely berthed no further assistance was required and the owner will repair the damaged rudder,” Lambinon said.
NSRI Agulhas duty crew launched the sea rescue craft I&J Rescuer IV and Rescue 30 at 11.20am on Saturday to assist a Hobie Cat with two young men on board shooting red distress flares from about two nautical miles off-shore of Struisbaai.
On arrival on the scene it was found that the Hobie Cat had taken water and tipped over and the two men were unable to right their craft and used red distress flares to raise the alarm.
Both local men were rescued from the water onto the sea rescue craft and their Hobie Cat was righted and towed ashore without incident and they required no further assistance, he said.
Also at about 11.20am on Saturday, NSRI Hermanus and NSRI Gordons Bay duty crew were activated following a request for assistance from a dive boat reporting a diver missing one nautical mile off Stoney Point, Betty’s Bay.
The dive master reported their diver missing for an hour and a search had failed to locate him.
NSRI Hermanus, NSRI Gordons Bay, a police dive unit, provincial emergency medical service (EMS) rescue divers and an ambulance, and a Cape Town fire and rescue services rescue dive team responded. The EMS/AMS Skymed rescue helicopter was placed on alert.
“While responding to the scene the dive boat reported finding the diver adrift and it appears that the dive boat crew had lost sight of his dive safety buoy, and finding the diver later they reported that he was not injured and no further assistance was required,” Lambinon said.
NSRI Melkbosstrand, NSRI Table Bay, and the EMS/AMS Skymed rescue helicopter were placed on alert at 5.30pm on Saturday following eye-witness reports of two windsurfers appearing to be too far out to sea and possibly in difficulty off-shore of the Milnerton golf course.
A provincial EMS rescue squad, the SA Police Service, ER24 ambulance services, community medics, law enforcement, and an NSRI Melkbosstrand mobile unit responded to the scene at Milnerton lighthouse to investigate. It appeared that the two windsurfers were simply windsurfing, but later it appeared that they were lying down on their boards and possibly being swept out to sea, and Metro Control activated the Skymed rescue helicopter while the NSRI Table Bay sea rescue craft Spirit of Vodacom was launched.
An extensive air, sea, and shore search that lasted well into the night revealed no sign of the two windsurfers, but during the search two windsurfers fitting the description were found windsurfing off Big Bay, Bloubergstrand, but they denied being off-shore of Milnerton earlier.
“With no reports of anyone overdue or missing we suspect that the two windsurfers got to shore without incident,” he said.
On Saturday, NSRI Shelly Beach launched the sea rescue craft Spirit of Dawn to assist a boat at sea reporting three crew members to be suffering acute sea sickness. Two women and a child were removed from the boat and brought to shore without incident.
Also at Shelley Beach, on Thursday, NSRI duty crew launched the sea rescue craft Spirit of Dawn and took seven crew off the boat Albatross, suffering motor failure, before assisting to tow the boat to shore without incident, Lambinon said.
Source – African News Agency (ANA)
