Enrico Menezies, NSRI Still Bay station commander, said; “At 18h30 on 21 December 2011, NSRI Still Bay volunteer sea rescue duty crew were activated following reports of a drowning in progress at Sand Strand, Jongensfontein, 12km from Still Bay.
“Our NSRI volunteer sea rescue duty crew launched our sea rescue craft SPIRIT OF ST FRANCIS while NSRI rescue swimmers responded to the scene in our NSRI rescue vehicle.
“On arrival on-scene it was found that 40 year old angler Carel van der Merwe, from Durbanville, had been swept off rocks by waves and swept out into the pounding 4 meter breaking swells in the surf line.
“A fellow angler, local Chris van Zyl, had thrown a line to Carel, trying to pull him out of the water but the rip currents dragged Carel further out into the middle of the surf line.
“When our sea rescue vehicle arrived on-scene Carel could be seen about 100 meters off-shore being pounded by the huge breaking surf.
“NSRI Still Bay rescue swimmer Jean du Plessis swam out, from the beach, using a rip current to reach the casualty quickly (in these situations rip-currents are regarded as a rescue swimmers best friend – helping the rescue swimmer to get out to sea quickly), and on reaching Carel at first Jean tried to swim him towards shore but the surf was pounding them so instead, changing tactics, trying to swim Carel out through the big surf towards the back line where Jean knew the sea rescue craft would shortly be arriving on scene.
“But Carel is a large big chap and efforts were further hampered by the large breaking waves so NSRI rescue swimmer CJ Joubert, who at that stage was standing at the sea rescue vehicle and directing the shortly to arrive sea rescue craft to where the two men were in the surf, seeing the dilemma that his colleague faced decided to use the same rip-current to quickly reach the two and lend his colleague a hand.
“Once CJ reached them, now about 150 meters off-shore, but still a good 100 meters inside of the back line, the two rescuers struggled to pull Carel out through the surf. Every time they gained some ground a set of waves tumbled in and drove them back into the center of the surf line.
“At the same time the sea rescue craft SPIRIT OF ST FRANCIS, now on-scene, at the back line, some 100 meters from the casualty and his 2 rescuer swimmers, was trying desperately to find gaps in the surf to rush in and pick up the trio but the frequency of the waves and their size made it impossible and the risk of capsizing the sea rescue craft was just too great.
“It was then that Jean and CJ decided to rather drag Carel through the surf towards the beach using the incoming waves to aid their progress despite the risk this posed to their casualty as incoming waves kept engulfing their efforts.
“On reaching the beach other NSRI rescuers helped them ashore.
“Carel was in a serious condition and it was evident he had breathed in (aspirated) water and swallowed a lot of water so without hesitation we rushed him to our local doctor who treated Carel for near drowning symptoms, shock, exhaustion and breathing difficulties and a Metro EMS ambulance was summoned and the patient has been transported to hospital in Mossel Bay for further treatment in a stable condition.
“The success of this rescue operation was dampened by multiple reports from eye-witnesses of red distress flares being deployed at sea off-shore of Still Bay but when our NSRI rescuers arrived on-scene they were found to be dozens of Chinese Lanterns being set off by members of the public on the beach.”
NSRI are urging the public to be extremely safety conscious over the coming Christmas weekend where the monthly new moon Spring tide will cause high tide to be higher than normal, low tide to be lower than normal and rip currents to be stronger than normal. Bathers and anglers should be particularly cautious during this period.
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