National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) volunteers responded to a series of call-outs over this period.
One of the first incidents on December 23, involved assisting an elderly tourist suffering from exhaustion while hiking.
Knysna station commander Jerome Simonis said that the local NSRI crew had been activated just after 15:00 after receiving a call from the family of a 71-year-old Scottish visitor. They had been doing a coastal walk at the Pezula Estate when the elderly hiker became exhausted. He was unable to tackle a steep walk back to his vehicle.
“We dispatched our sea rescue craft Jaytee IV and Jolen. We walked the man down to the beach and he was taken aboard our sea rescue craft and brought to the Knysna Marina. No further assistance was required,” Simonis said.
On Christmas Day just after 15:00 Knysna sea rescue volunteers were dispatched again to assist owners of boats taking on water at the Belvedere moorings.
“Four boats were taking on water at their moorings suspected to have been caused by the stiff gusting 30 knot South Easterly winds,” Simonis said.
He added on arrival owners of three of the boats had managed to pump water from their boats and could re-float their vessels. The final boat however had sunk completely.
“We set up water extrication pumps and assisted by SANParks rangers, who had responded to assist, the boat was re-floated and once safely tied to her moorings no further assistance was required.”
At about 12:00 on Tuesday December 27, Plettenberg Bay volunteers and lifeguards responded to reports of a suspected paraglider crash near The Dunes.
“On investigation it was found that the paraglider had landed safely and required no further assistance,” Plett station commander Marc Rodgers said.
He added just a few hours later at about 17:50 the local rescue crew assisted SANParks rangers to search for a missing 12-year-old girl. She had gone missing while cycling in the Harkerville forest.
“Before arriving on the scene the child was found safe and no further assistance was required.”
Rodgers said the next morning just before 11:30 rescuers launched the Airlink Rescuer after receiving reports of a cabin boat that had capsized at the Keurbooms River mouth.
“All crew onboard were found safe and the sea rescue craft assisted them back to their moorings in the Keurbooms River and they required no further assistance,” Rodgers said.
Just after 9:30 on December 28 Knysna NSRI volunteers responded to a call for assistance after two pencil rubber ducks suffered mechanical failure during the Trans Agulhas race.
Not only did volunteers take the crew back to shore, but also towed their vessels through the Knysna Heads to safe moorings at the Knysna Marina.
At about 10:00 on New Year’s Eve the Plettenberg Bay crew was called out to assist two people who fell overboard their boat in the Keurbooms River mouth.
Rodgers said two rescue craft were launched. “While responding to the scene, the skipper of the boat managed to rescue both people who had fallen out of the boat and taken them back to shore. No one was injured,” Rodgers said.
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