Kayakers in difficulty fire hand flare to summon help
24/05/2022
Two kayakers in difficulty summoned help from rescue services in Still Bay, South Africa, using a hand-held flare.
NSRI Jeffreys Bay was asked to help following reports of two kayakers in trouble in the waters off Preekstoel and the NSRI rescue craft Colorpress Rescuer was launched.
The kayakers had set off a red flare and the crew spotted them.
National Sea Rescue Institute Still Bay station commander, Jean du Plessis, says, “On our arrival at their side, we found that one of the two kayaks was semi-submerged, taking water and drifting into the surf zone. They were about a nautical mile off-shore.
“We rescued the casualty kayaker and his waterlogged kayak onto our NSRI rescue craft and the second kayaker chose to paddle back to the harbour which he did without incident. The casualty kayak was drained of water and we brought the casualty kayaker and his kayak to the harbour without incident.”
The kayakers told the NSRI crew they had been fishing and went further out to sea and closer towards the surf zones. But one kayak became unstable after its bung popped out, took on water and began to submerge.
The two linked their kayaks together but struggled to paddle towards the harbour against an offshore wind and so raised the alarm.
They called the NSRI on their phones and had that not worked would have used the free NSRI RSA SafeTrx app and activated the emergency alert.
NSRI praised the kayakers for having safety gear and an emergency action plan in place.
The image is a stock picture of NSRI Jeffreys Bay rescuers.
