At 10h55 on Monday 26 September, the NSRI Durban volunteer duty crew were activated following a request for assistance from the 42 foot Catamaran yacht THOLILE reporting to be approximately 40 nautical miles off-shore South of Port Edward (67 nautical miles from Durban’s Port) with 6 crew onboard – 5 males and 1 female, believed to all be Durbanites. 3 of the crew are reported to suffering the effects of dehydration as a result of prolonged sea sickness (reportedly having been sea sick for approximately 26 hours) as the yacht, sailing from Durban to Mauritius, suffered a rope fouled around one propellor rendering one of her two motors unusable, a torn sail and an overheated second motor and has subsequently drifted far South as a result of a 25 knot South Easterly wind and (we suspect) caught in the Southward flowing Agulhas currents and 4 meter swells and at some point the yacht sprung a leak which the crew have apparently managed to subsequently stem adding to her woes.
NSRI Shelly Beach and NSRI Port Edward were scrambled to respond immediately, launching the sea rescue craft CALTEX ENDEAVOR (from NSRI Shelly Beach) and the sea rescue craft WILD COAST SUN RESCUER (from NSRI Port Edward), in order to get floating rescue craft to her side as quickly as possible and to render some medical assistance to the 3 sea sick crew members and to get a tow-line onto the yacht to arrest her drift Southwards.
At this stage efforts to find the yacht wre hampered as it was presumed that she could also be experiencing GPS (Global Positioning System) problems.
With nowhere to bring the casualty yacht to shore along that stretch of coastline NSRI Durban launched their deep-sea rescue craft EIKOS RESCUER II with extra supplies and refreshments, and headed South.
Mark Harlen, NSRI Shelly Beach station commander, (and the current Operations Commander for this rescue operation), said: “At present we have a coordinated major joint operation in progress between the 3 sea rescue stations (Shelly Beach, Port Edward and Durban) and communications are being assisted through the Maritime Radio Services. One of the NSRI Durban volunteers knows all the crew onboard the casualty yacht so we have put him in charge of ensuring that all of their family members are kept in close touch with the progress of the rescue while our rescue crews deal with the rescue itself which at this stage includes locating the casualty yacht but at this stage all 6 crew members on the casualty craft are safe and in no immediate danger.”
Additional NSRI volunteers were summoned to their respective sea rescue bases to assist in manning the NSRI control rooms in case a crew rotation would be required.
The NSRI were informed that the yacht THOLILE left Durban and had headed towards Port Elizabeth and only then were they going to head across to Mauritius.
This information shed light on their position being so far South of Durban. Initially NSRI were under the impression they had drifted South, after losing engine power and tearing their sails, due to the currents and wind pushing them Southwards, but they are in fact where they should be based on where they were heading.
Then two NSRI rescue craft searched for the yacht during the afternoon when the yacht was not found at the GPS (Global Position) they had provided. It appears that they had to re-boot their GPS to provide an accurate reading and when this was done both NSRI rescue boats had returned to base to re-fuel. Once their new GPS coordinates were provided their position was found to be quite some distance further South of the original GPS position they had provided to NSRI.
Based on the reports from the yacht crew, that they were no longer suffering from sea-sickness and that they had hydrated to alleviate the effects of dehydration, and with NSRI Durban’s deep-sea rescue craft only an hour and a half away from reaching them, the two sea rescue craft (in Shelly beach and in Port Edward) were not dispatched to return to sea and instead now remain on stand-by at their respective bases.
NSRI Durban’s sea rescue craft EIKOS RESCUER II rendezvoused with the casualty yacht at 20h48 last night. A tow-line is rigged and the tow has begun.
The NSRI and Tholile were estimated to arrive in the Port of Durban in the early hours of this morning. All are safe and well.
