PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - The Plettenberg Bay NSRI duty crew volunteers were activated at 13:35 on Sunday, April 19 to assist a fellow NSRI volunteer, Laurent Eray (a boat coxswain at NSRI Plettenberg Bay and a volunteer for 29 years) who, during a regular morning jog between Nature’s Valley and Keurbooms Beach, had become trapped by the rising tide on a cliff face at Oupa and Ouma’s.

Eray had apparently been climbing over the cliff at but got to a point where he couldn’t climb any further. However, on turning around to go back he found that he was slipping on the cliff face rocks due to wet shoes after earlier wading through water. To add to the dilemma the route back had also been cut off by the high tide.

Realising that he had somehow gotten himself into a precarious situation where his safety had become compromised, he called for assistance.

The NSRI knew a boat would not be able to reach Eray’s position due to the rising tide and increasing sea swell. Consequently the Western Cape Government Health EMS rescue service was alerted.

The Red Cross AMS rescue helicopter was activated, accompanied by rescue technicians Hilton Romer and Mohamed Shaik and they collected NSRI rescue swimmer Bruce Noble from the Plettenberg Bay NSRI station.

During this time Eray had begun to experience hypothermia due to wet clothing as well as muscle spasms from being in a confined space on the cliff face.

On arrival on the scene, in a difficult technical rescue operation, rescue technician Romer and rescue swimmer Noble were hoisted from the hovering helicopter to Eray where he was stabilised before being secured into a hoisting harness and safely hoisted off the cliff face into the helicopter.