Marine Rescue kept busy

By Jo Kennett

IT WAS another busy Australia Day and weekend on the water with Marine Rescue Point Danger (MRPD) volunteers coming to the rescue of several boaties in trouble.

MRPD public relations officer Aaron Ashley said Australia Day was one of the busiest days on the water in a long time, with hot and sunny conditions bringing the crowds out.

“MRPD were engaged for a majority of the day assisting largely minor mechanical issues with three offshore incidents and only one inshore,” he said.

“It was very hot and great boating conditions both inshore and offshore, but it was a generally safe day as no injuries were dealt with by our unit.

“We had both rescue vessels on the water with our larger vessel Point Danger 31 responding to offshore issues and towing to inshore across the bar and then handing off the vessel in distress to our smaller vessel, Point Danger 20, to complete the inshore tow.

“That allowed our larger vessel to head back out offshore and continue to respond to offshore incidents.

“Our radio room over Australia Day and the entire weekend was extremely busy with many volunteers doing extended shifts to cater for the volume of marine traffic.”

Mr Ashley said they had also anticipated a busy day on Friday but they didn’t receive a request for assistance or incident at all, and the weekend was busy with hot weather bringing people out onto the waterways.

“On Saturday we had a very large houseboat with steerage issues that needed assistance relocating to the Ivory Marina,”

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Mr Ashley said. “MRPD also responded to two offshore tow requests which usually take two to three hours if within a few miles offshore and we had both rescue vessels on the water.

“Sunday was really hot with great conditions and it was still very busy on the water but we only had two inshore tow requests for a family and a couple with engine problems needing a tow back to their launch points.

“Prior to this we had both our rescue vessels on the water doing towing and rafting exercises training newer crew which played well into the two following inshore towing requests that followed.”