The NSRI St Lucia Rescue Crew arrived at the beach for a routine training session and ended up spending the morning rescuing 20 kayakers in distress.
St Lucia, South Africa (25 October 2021) – The NSRI St Lucia crew were scheduled to take part in some routine training over the weekend and just happened to be in the right place at the right time. The crew were able to complete a successful mass rescue without too many serious injuries.
According to the NSRI, they were alerted to several kayakers in distress. There was a kayaking race in progress, and the rough sea was causing problems for even the most seasoned kayaker.
“While preparing to initiate routine training exercises we noticed a group of people gathered on the shore and kayakers in the surf behind the backline breakers.
Surf conditions were rough with a gusting 10 to 12-knot wind and an approaching low tide. Under these conditions rip currents in this particular area are known to be swift.
Immediately concerns were raised as our NSRI crew began to assess, in these conditions, how the kayakers would get to shore and what line should they should be navigating as the safest route to shore in the prevailing conditions.
As we arrived on the beach we were immediately approached by some public members who had earlier been kayaking at sea. They requested urgent assistance pointing to three of their kayaker friends capsized behind backline and reporting more kayakers at sea paddling in an event and expected to arrive off-shore in due course.”
The NSRI crew quickly jumped into action as they realised the scale of the rescue that was about to take place. They issued an emergency message to the NSRI EOC (Emergency Operations Centre) to activate all available crew and resources.
“We immediately noticed one of the 3 kayakers was close to rocks with a broken paddle while the 2 remaining kayakers were further out to sea.
While additional sea rescue crew responded to Cape Vidal we launched our sea rescue craft, Rescue 40 Alpha,
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The kayaker closest to the rocks was rescued first and finding him to be injured we brought him to the beach where medical treatment was rendered.
We re-launched Rescue 40 Alpha and on arriving at the remaining 2 kayakers they were assisted safely to shore.”
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“The kayaker who had earlier been injured and who was in the care of NSRI medics was transported to the car park where a Netcare 911 ambulance that had been summoned was standing by.
It was deemed necessary for the patient to be transported to an emergency room and a Netcare 911 HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medical Service) was dispatched while the patient was transported by ambulance to St Lucia.
NSRI crew assisted to establish a landing zone at St Lucia and on the arrival of the Netcare 911 helicopter the patient was taken into the care of the Netcare 911 helicopter paramedics and he was airlifted to a hospital in a stable condition.”
In total, 20 kayakers, aged between 18 and 45, had been assisted in some way. It was a happy day that the rescue team was on the scene almost immediatly to help. The NSRI thanked the Georgio family in St Lucia, who allowed their garden to be used as a landing zone for the helicopter.
The NSRI relies on donations from the public and companies to support it. They also rely on volunteers, so you can see the various way to donate here: www.nsri.org.za/donate.
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