Thanks to the mild weather and generally good boating conditions, Marine Rescue volunteers were kept busy up and down the NSW coast over the weekend.
A total of 39 rescues were performed, of which nine were in response to life-endangering emergencies, with a total of 79 people rescued.
Four men were returned safely to shore after their boat sank 20 nautical miles off Sydney Heads on Saturday morning (October 17) in an emergency that demonstrated the safety value of VHF marine radio.
The boaters – a father and son and two mates – had been on a fishing trip when one of their 8m boat’s engines stopped.
When they went to investigate, they found the engine bay rapidly filling with water.
The men began bailing but realising they couldn’t keep up with the inflow, made a Mayday call on VHF Channel 16 as the boat overturned.
A number of Good Samaritan boaters in the vicinity raced to rescue the men from the water.
Marine Rescue Middle Harbour was quickly under way on board rescue vessel Middle Harbour 30 in response to the Mayday just after 11am, along with a Marine Area Command – NSW Police Force vessel.
MR Middle Harbour Deputy Unit Commander Ben Crowther, Bill Keleher, Mick Stott, Altan Kececi and Ron Van Leer were on board MH 30, with Dean Mills providing communications support at the unit’s base at The Spit.DUC Crowther said conditions had been unpleasant: a 1.5-2m swell and choppy between the swell.
He said on arrival at the scene, the police had determined the conditions were not suitable to transfer the four men from a recreational boat on which they were sheltering. It then returned them to shore.
The crew of Middle Harbour 30 remained on location to calculate the drift of the sunken boat so MR Terrey Hills could broadcast Securite warnings to alert other boaters in the vicinity to keep watch for the navigational hazard, before returning through the Heads about 3pm.
Discovering the four men had been delivered to the Middle Harbour Yacht Club, near the Middle Harbour base, the crew then located the men and ferried them back to the Roseville boat ramp, returning to base just before 4.30pm.
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