CAPE TOWN, April 30 (ANA) – An exhausted and hypothermic paddler from Athlone in Cape Town, who got separated from fellow paddlers after getting into difficulties and being blown out to sea, was lucky to be rescued on Sunday during an extensive search off the Atlantic seaboard and beyond.
National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) Table Bay station commander Quentin Botha said NSRI Table Bay and NSRI Bakoven duty crews were activated just before 9.15am following a distress call from a paddler reporting to be about 600 metres off-shore of Three Anchor Bay and in difficulties in strong winds.
“The NSRI Bakoven sea rescue craft Rotarian Schipper and the NSRI Table Bay sea rescue craft Spirit of Vodacom and Spirit of Day were launched while coast watchers along the Sea Point coastline scoured the ocean searching for a lone paddler, but all paddlers that were located did not fit the description of the paddler in distress and efforts to reach him on his cellphone were unsuccessful,” he said.
The Cape Town boating network were also alerted and boats at sea at the time and in the area offered to keep a watch. At the same time, NSRI honorary life governor Howard Godfrey launched his private boat Gemini One and searched on a pattern towards Robben Island and back towards Clifton.
With all these resources conducting an extensive search and still finding no sign of the paddler, the NSRI Air Sea Rescue (ASR) and AMS/EMS Skymed rescue helicopter also launched.
“After new information indicated that the paddler may now be further southwest off-shore of Bantry Bay an extended search continued to find no sign of the paddler despite the search area extending between Three Anchor Bay and Camps Bay and further out to sea,” Botha said.
Then the crew of the private rubber-duck Stella Maris, who were at sea at the time, reported to NSRI Melkbosstrand that they had come across a paddler half-way between Robben Island and Oudekraal.
They had taken the paddler on board, reporting that he was hypothermic, exhausted, and in shock. With the information provided fitting the description of the missing paddler NSRI Table Bay’s sea rescue craft Spirit of Vodacom rendezvoused with Stella Maris and took the 47-year-old man on board the sea rescue craft. He was treated for exhaustion and severe hypothermia while they brought him to the NSRI Table Bay rescue base.
“ER24 ambulance services were summoned to the NSRI Table Bay sea rescue station where they continued medical treatment and they have transported the man to hospital in a stable condition and he will make a full recovery,” Botha said.
The man, who was wearing a life-jacket, reported losing sight of his friends when he was knocked off his paddle board and although managing to get back on, waves were then swamping the paddle board.
After raising the alarm by cellphone he had put his cellphone into his wet suit and it was believed that he did not know that his cellphone had switched off. He drifted for over two hours with no flares or any other safety devices on board, before being found by the crew of Stella Maris.
“Stella Maris, unaware that a search and rescue operation was under way for a paddler, were heading towards Oudekraal at the time when they saw an object floating in the water and approached the object, finding the paddler who was half in the water and half out the water, with the life-jacket keeping him afloat, but barely able to hold on to his paddle board and appearing to be in a bad way and saying ‘please help me’.
“The crew of Stella Maris are commended for being vigilant while at sea and happening upon the paddler who was in distress and the skipper of Stella Maris James Gildenhuys and his crew Johannes du Toit and Jayden Rodrigues are commended for saving this man’s life today [Sunday],” Botha said.
The NSRI are urged boaters and paddlers to download the free NSRI SafetTrx phone application – found on the NSRI web page www.nsri.org.za – on to their cellphones, which in an emergency would give NSRI and rescuers an exact position of the person in distress.
“We also urge paddlers to carry safety equipment, paddle in groups of at least three persons, and stay together,” he said.
– African News Agency (ANA)
