A lone paddler in the icy sea hung onto his paddle-ski 1 nautical mile off shore for more than hour today, 13 April.
Perchance an NSRI rescue boat towing a stricken boat to shore noticed the paddler’s plight and rescued him. Mark Harlen, NSRI Shelly Beach station commander, said the paddle-ski had capsized and was heavily laden with water and was drifting off shore.
The rescued man was from Port Shepstone. He said he had been adrift for over an hour and that in the cross shore wind he had been unable to get to shore after capsizing on the paddle-ski. He was most grateful for being rescued.
NSRI Shelly Beach towed the paddle-ski to shore and once ashore the paddler required no further assistance.
Harlen says just prior to this incident at 10.55 am today, NSRI Shelly Beach volunteer sea rescue duty crew were activated following a request for assistance from a 6 meter Catamaran motor boat with 5 crew on board. The boat was off-shore of Ramsgate, 8 nautical miles South of Shelly Beach. Its motor had failed and it needed to be towed.
“Our NSRI Shelly Beach volunteer sea rescue duty crew launched our sea rescue craft Caltex Endeavor and on arrival we found that another boat had already taken four the crew off the casualty boat and then took them safely ashore. “The skipper was left behind so a towline was rigged from our sea rescue craft and we began to tow the casualty boat towards Shelly Beach, in the 10 knot North Easterly wind (a cross shore wind) and 1.5 meter swell.
While towing the casualty boat, the NSRI volunteers came across the lone paddler in the water. The casualty boat was also brought safely ashore and the skipper of the boat required no further assistance.”
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