KNYSNA | PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS – April has so far been a busy time for Plettenberg Bay and Knysna sea rescue volunteers with crews having to launch into action on several occasions to assist people in difficulty in the area's waters.
The latest incident happened last week when they assisted a kayaker on the Knysna Lagoon. The local man was unable to navigate to shore after being engulfed in dense fog.
Knysna National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) station commander Jerome Simonis said that they activated their crew just before 18:30 on 13 April following a request for assistance.
The man had reported that he could not see any lights through the fog and therefore battled to find his bearings, but believed he was in the Bollard Bay area. "Although the NSRI and his wife had cellphone contact with the man, he had been unable to determine which way to head through the dense fog to reach the shoreline."
While they prepared to launch a sea rescue craft, an NSRI rescue vehicle was dispatched to Leisure Isle and used its red emergency flashing lights to direct the kayaker.
This worked and he paddled ashore. "Once safely ashore he required no further assistance."
Swept out to sea
Two days earlier, on 11 April, a sea rescue training exercise turned into a rescue operation when an elderly man was swept out to sea at the Keurbooms River mouth.
NSRI Plettenberg Bay trainee coxswain Monica Taylor said at about 09:40, while conducting routine training exercises, the crew were alerted to reports of a surf-skier in difficulty. See sidebar for the full story of how it unfolded.
Waterlogged
The day before, at about 14:30, it had been the Knysna duty crew's turn to launch into action when it was reported that a cabin boat with three people on board was in difficulty on the Knysna River near the N2.
"Witnesses on the N2 reported there were three crew appearing to be waving for help from their cabin boat," Simonis said.
They immediately launched their sea rescue craft Katharine. Others joined the operation including NSRI rescue swimmers, police and government health and traffic services. SANParks rangers also dispatched their patrol boat.
On arrival at the scene they found the three, a man, his wife and his daughter, safely on shore and the boat was found capsized just off-shore of the N2. It appears that the boat started to take water after they stopped to begin fishing. The boat had become too waterlogged and the three swam safely to shore when it gently capsized.
The boat was later towed to shallower water nearer to the Point jetty. "Because of the high tide we could only dispatch our sea rescue craft Katharine to get under the railway bridge, and we attempted to use Katharine to right the capsized craft, but we were unable to get the boat, which was heavy laden with water, righted.
"The larger SANParks patrol boat was used to right the craft, assisted by NSRI rescue swimmers and police divers who were deployed into the water to assist with the righting."
Once the boat was righted, water was pumped out of the craft with water extrication pumps.
Broken ankle
On 6 April at about 14:20, NSRI Pletten-berg Bay volunteers were called to action when a 21-year-old American woman suffered a fractured ankle during a hike along the Robberg Nature Reserve.
Duty coxswain Nick van den Handel said their sea rescue craft Leonard Smith and Rescue 14 Bravo were launched. On arrival, the crew went ashore at Robberg Point and hiked to the patient. CapeNature rangers were activated to assist on the scene.
"The patient was stabilised by NSRI crew, but sea conditions were not conducive to getting her safely onto the sea rescue craft. The EMS/AMS Skymed rescue helicopter was activated to assist to extract the patient from the scene," Van den Handel said.
Paramedics were transferred via helicopter to the location and following further medical treatment, the patient was airlifted to the reserve's parking lot.
"From the car park the patient was transported to hospital in Knysna by EMS ambulance. The patient has since been discharged from hospital and she is recovering," said Van den Handel.
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