RESCUE
THE SEA
When a paddler doing the Reverse Miller’s Run was thrown off course by a sudden change in wind conditions, SafeTRX and a quick NSRI response saved the day. Rob Mousley recounts the events of that 9 July morning.
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HEN THE NSRI reached Duncan MacDonald’s position, he was approximately 6km off Smitswinkel Bay, rapidly drifting further offshore on his surfski. Gale-force squalls whipped sheets of spray off the waves, reducing visibility almost to nothing. Would they be able to spot the surfski in the maelstrom of waves and spray? When Duncan and two friends had set off to do the Reverse Miller’s Run, the northwesterly wind had been a relatively moderate 15 knots, gusting to 25 knots – ideal conditions to see the paddlers surfing wave after wave from Fish Hoek to Miller’s Point in False Bay, Cape Town.
Rain and spray whipped up by the squalls blotted out the coastline. Unbeknownst to them, the wind direction had changed too, and although the paddlers thought they were on a direct line to the finish, they were actually heading further and further out to sea. It was only when the gloom lifted momentarily that they realised just how far offshore they were. Duncan, the least experienced of the three surfskiers, had fallen behind and could not see his friends ahead of him when they abruptly turned right to head in towards the ramp at Miller’s Point.
A sudden wind change turned the sea into a frothy mass of swells during the Reverse Miller’s Run paddle.
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SEA RESCUE SPRING 2020
PHOTOGRAPHS: SIMON MCDONNELL
But as they passed Roman Rock Lighthouse, approximately halfway, the wind strength increased dramatically.
