Durban – The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) has issued a safety alert to recreational water users including beachgoers, boaters, paddlers, sailors and fishermen to put safety first after several incidents along the South African coastline.
NSRI spokesperson Craig Lambinon said the call for safety came after multiple incidents along the coastline during the long weekend.
Lambinon said there was an incident at Durban’s North Beach where three lives were lost and multiple bathers were injured on Saturday.
EThekwini Municipality confirmed that one of the three people who died after being swept out to sea by a rip current was a teenager.
Lambinon said there were a further four drownings along the country’s coast as well as cases at False Bay and Camps Bay where bathers remain missing.
“We are appealing to bathers to swim at beaches protected by lifeguards.”
In the early hours of Sunday morning, at 1am, Lambinon said NSRI Bakoven and the SAPS searched between Camps Bay and Glen Beach where a group of people had earlier entered the water. They then reported that one person went missing in the surf.
“Police divers are continuing in a search at Camps Bay for a 42-year-old female who remains missing,” he said.
On Saturday, he said, three lives were saved by NSRI Bakoven after three stand-up paddle (SUP) borders got into difficulty and were in danger of being swept out to sea as wind speeds picked up suddenly.
He said a fishing vessel had also spotted the three people and the fishermen were able to use the vessel to provide them shelter from the wind almost a nautical mile off-shore until NSRI Bakoven arrived on the scene.
He said once rescued they were taken to the Oceana Power Boat Club where health department EMS paramedics treated them for hypothermia.
In an incident on Friday, Lambinon said NSRI Gordons Bay responded to Koegel Bay following reports of a small boat that capsized off-shore with three men on board.
He said two NSRI Gordons Bay rescue craft arrived on the scene three minutes after the alarm was raised.
“They found a person clinging to the upturned hull and 2 people in the water. They had called a friend to raise the alarm and they were able to set off red distress flares,” he said.
Lambinon said on the West Coast between Yzerfontein and Saldanha Bay, NSRI Yzerfontein, NSRI Mykonos and the Transnet National Ports Authority conducted an extensive search operation for two people on a pencil racing duck who went missing in the vicinity of Langebaan Lagoon while training for the Trans Agulhas.
They were eventually found to have washed into the Saldanha Bay Iron Ore area and they were safe, he said.
“We are appealing to boaters, paddlers and sailors to download and use the NSRI RSA SafeTrx smart phone application, wear brightly coloured gear appropriate for the expected weather and water temperatures, wear life-jackets, and have a referee whistle, red distress flares, fully charged cell phones in water tight plastic sleeves, and let a responsible person know your launch time, route and return time – and all involved should have the emergency numbers 112 and 0870949774 at the ready to raise the alarm,” said Lambinon.