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1THREAD_3524_NSRI
MARINE
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WARE REDDINGSVERHAAL
12 SEA RESCUE • WINTER 2011
OP SOEK NA
GULLIVER ATTIE GUNTER, LEON PRETORIUS EN QUINTEN DIENER VAN STASIE 33 (WITSAND) HET HULLE LEWENS OP DIE SPEL GEPLAAS IN HUL POGING OM DIE BEMANNING VAN DIE SEILJAG GULLIVER TYDENS ’N SIEDENDE STORM TE RED. DEUR ANDREW INGRAM. VERTAAL DEUR PIETER MALAN
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ie lewe was goed, het Attie Gunter gedink nadat hy aan die begin van Junie ná ’n paar weke se vakansie in Mosambiek weer op sy plaas naby Witsand aangekom het. Alhoewel die 26-jarige boer moeg was van die lang ryery, was hy opgewonde om terug te wees op sy plaas naby die mond van die Breederivier. Hy het onmiddelik sy adjunk-stasiebevelvoerder gebel om te hoor hoe dinge gegaan het terwyl hy weg was. ‘Doodstil,’ was die antwoord. Terwyl hy reggemaak het vir die nag het die weer versleg. Maar omdat die werk op die plaas taamlik opgehoop het terwyl hy weg was, het hy hom nie baie daaraan gesteur nie. Tot die oproep van Stasie 31, hul NSRI-bure in Stilbaai. ’n EPIRB (emergency position indicating radio beacon) is geaktiveer in die omgewing van Kaap Infanta en Stilbaai se 7.3m Spirit of St Francis was in die Kaap vir dienswerk. Kan julle ouens in Witsand help, asseblief? Sonder om te aarsel het Attie ’n SMS aan sy bemanning gestuur om by die stasie aan te meld. Dit was 19h10, Woensdag 15 Junie. Een van die Witsand-vrywilligers, eiendomsagent Leon Pretorius, was tuis saam met sy vrou, Hanli, en hul vier-jarige seun, Troi, toe sy selfoon biep. ‘Gewoonlik sê hy net “baai” en verdwyn,’ onthou Hanli, ‘maar die keer was dit anders.’ ‘Ek is lief vir jou. Ek is regtig lief vir jou,’ het Leon aan sy
vrou gesê voordat hy ook vir Troi ’n soen op die voorkop gegee het en in sy motor gespring het. By Stasie 33 was die meeste bemanningslede reeds besig om die grootste van hul twee semi-rigiede opblaasbote, die 5.5m Queenie Paine, gereed te kry vir ’n baie lang nagvaart. Attie het intussen die lyne warm gebel om soveel moontlik inligting to probeer kry voordat hulle die boot te water laat. Volgens sy inligting was hul op soek na ’n 40-voet-tweeromp seiljag, die Gulliver, wat behoort aan ’n sakeman van Kaap St Francis, Greg West. Greg se vrou, Marcelle, het Kaapstad Radio gekontak nadat sy nie daarin kon slaag om haar man op sy selfoon in die hande te kry nie. Kaapstad Radio het toe reeds ’n EPIRB (wat gewoonlik net geaktiveer word in geval van nood) naby Kaap Infanta geïdentifiseer en dit aan die Maritieme Reddingskoördineringsentrum in Kaapstad oorgedra. Marcelle was teen hierdie tyd vas oortuig dat dié sein aan die Gulliver behoort en het die reddingskoördineerder oortuig om die NSRI te kontak. Teen 21h10 is die Queenie Paine te water gelaat met Attie aan die stuur. Saam met hom was Leon Pretorius en Quinten Diener. Die Breederivier was in vloed na die reën van die afgelope paar dae en byna onmiddelik het Attie-hulle ’n sandbank getref wat geskuif het tydens die stormweer. Hulle het versigtig hulle weg om die sandbank gewerk tot in die mond van die rivier en ’n paar verligtingsfakkels gereed gekry.
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Die maan was bloedrooi. Dit was minute voor die totale maansverduistering toe hul eerste fakkel opgeskiet is. Binne ’n paar sekondes is dit gevolg deur nog een. En nog een. En nog een. Op hierdie manier, het Attie gehoop, sou hy genoeg lig hê om die 500m breë branderlyn oor te steek voordat die donker hulle weer vang. ‘Ons het steeds ’n brander getref,’ sê Attie, ‘maar ons was deur.’ Die maansverduistering was op sy hoogtepunt en saam met die bewolkte weer het dit beteken dat dit pikdonker was. Die wind was sterk maar nie te sleg nie, en hulle het goeie vordering gemaak in die rigting van die laaste posisie van die EPIRB. Die oomblik wat hulle die beskutting van die baai verlaat het, was die duiwel egter los. Die branders was reusagtig en het in alle rigtings gebreek. Attie sê by tye was die wind van agter só sterk dat dit die sproei van agter af verby hulle gewaai het. ‘Dit was heeltemal gek,’ sê Leon, wat diens gedoen het as radio-operateur. ‘Ons het so rondom 35km/h gedoen, so die wind moes ’n goeie 60km/h gewaai het.’ Leon het kontak gemaak met Kaapstad Radio en vasgestel dat die weer besig was om vinnig te versleg. Die deinings het verhoog van 5m na 8m. Ten spyte hiervan was hulle vasbeslote om hul missie te voltooi
14 SEA RESCUE • WINTER 2011
en Attie het die krane oopgedraai terwyl hy die Queenie Paine se neus gedruk het in die rigting van die jongste posisie van die EPIRB wat hulle van die Maritieme Reddingsentrum gekry het. Die aanbeveling wat hulle van die reddingskoördineerders gekry het was om tot by die posisie te vaar, een noodfakkel te skiet en as hulle geen reaksie kry nie onmiddelik om te draai. Dit was eenvoudig te gevaarlik vir ’n klein reddingsvaartuig soos hulle s’n om in daardie toestande te talm. Teen daardie tyd was die NSRI se operasionele bestuurder, Mark Hughes, in sy kantoor besig om Attie-hulle se vordering op sy rekenaar dop te hou. Met behulp van die Altec Netstar sateliet ‘tracker’ op die boot kon Mark die Queenie Paine se garedraad-lyntjie oor hul rekenaarskerms volg. Meer as ’n uur later was die Queenie Paine uiteindelik by die posisie waar hulle gehoop het die Gulliver sou wees. Teen daardie tyd was die storm goed op dreef en die bemanning moes skreeu om mekaar te hoor. Maar daar was geen seiljag nie. Leon het ’n rooi noodfakkel afgevuur, maar in die spokerige rooi lig voordat die stormwind die fakkellig doodgewaai het, kon hulle net wit skuimperde en reusagtige hoë branders rondom hulle sien.
FOTO’S: ANDREW INGRAM, GREG WEST
WARE REDDINGSVERHAAL
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MAAR TOE HULLE DIE BESKUTTING VAN DIE BAAI VERLAAT, IS DIE DUIWEL LOS
Van links na regs: Bemanningslede Attie Gunter, Leon Pretorius and Quinten Diener van Stasie 33 (Witsand) het die ergste storm wat hulle nog ooit beleef het aangedurf om die vier bemanningslede van die omgeslaande seiljag Gulliver te red
Maar Attie was seker hy het tog ’n dowwe liggie in die verte gesien. Kon dit wees? En toe sien sy ander bemanningslede dit ook. Hulle het geen idee gehad hoe ver dit was nie, maar dit was hul laaste kans. Dit was net na half-elf toe Leon Kaapstad Radio kontak om te laat weet dat hulle die Gulliver in sig het. Die tweeromp het in die stormweer omgeslaan, maar wonder bo wonder het al vier bemanningslede daarin geslaag om veilig tot in die opblaas-reddingsboot te kom en dit aan die romp van die omgeslaande seiljag vas te maak. ‘Is julle ouens orraait?’ was Attie-hulle se eerste woorde aan ’n nat en koue Greg en sy makkers. Terwyl die drama homself op die oop see afspeel was die spanning egter aan die oplaai in Stasie 33 se opskamer in Witsand. Omdat hulle glad nie met die Queenie Paine kon kontak maak nie, het hulle geen idee gehad wat aangaan nie. Al wat hulle op hul rekenaarskerm kon sien, was dat Attie-hulle besig was om teen ’n pynlike stadige 2km/h saam met die seestroom te dryf. Dit kon een van twee dinge beteken: óf hulle het omgeslaan óf dit neem langer as verwag om die skipbreukelinge aan boord te neem. Gelukkig was dit laasgenoemde. Een van die vier was só koud dat hy glad nie kon staan nie en die ander was in verskillende fases van hipotermie. Maar daar was darem nog tyd vir ’n grappie, onthou Attie. Hy sê toe hulle vir Greg aan boord tel het hy hom om verskoning gevra dat hulle so ’n klein bootjie gebring het. Waarop Greg geantwoord het: ‘Ek vat hom enige dag.’ Vyftien minute nadat hulle die Gulliver gekry het, was almal veilig aan boord die Queenie Paine en kon die terugtog begin. Maar met die branders wat gereeld oor die oorlaaide vaartuig breek (die boot, ontwerp vir vyf, het nou sewe groot mans aan boord gehad), was die gevaar groot dat hulle self kan omslaan. Die situasie was só desperaat dat daar nie eens tyd was om die drenkelinge warm aan te trek nie. Leon het vir een van die mans sy baadjie gegee en Attie moes Quinten keer om dieselfde te doen. ‘Die wind was verskriklik erg. Ek kan nie eers probeer om dit te beskryf nie. Ons het hulle net gewaarsku om styf vas te hou en beloof dat ons
sal probeer om hulle by die huis te kry,’ sê Attie. Groot was Attie se onsteltenis toe hy die Queenie Paine se twee buiteboordmotors oopdruk en niks gebeur nie. Teen daardie tyd was die boot só vol water dat hy nie wou beweeg nie. Maar gelukkig het die kragtige enjins stadig die oorhand gekry en die romp bo die branders uitgedruk, en die dek het begin dreineer. En gelukkig het Leon ook daarin geslaag om met Kaapstad Radio kontak te maak met die nuus dat hulle die seiljagvaarders opgepik het en op pad terug was – voordat hy weer kontak verloor het. By Leon se huis in Witsand het Hanli gesukkel om vir klein Troi te kalmeer. Gewoonlik slaap hy goed, maar daardie nag wou hy net nie rustig word nie. Hanli sê teen elf-uur het Troi in sy slaap begin praat en erg begin rondrol. Buite op die oop see was Troi se pa en die vier seiljagvaarders midde-in die ergste storm wat enigeen van hulle nog ooit beleef het. Quinten was in die boeg in ’n desperate poging om te keer dat die boot uit die water klim en omslaan, terwyl die seiljagvaarders so ver moontlik vorentoe geskuif is. Dit het min gehelp, want steeds het die boot teen die branders uitgeklim en deur die lug gevlieg terwyl die buiteboord enjins skreeu om genade voordat dit met geweld in die trog terugval. ‘Dit was verskriklik erg,’ onthou Attie. ‘Jy het eenvoudig geen idee waar jy gaan land nie, want jy kan niks sien nie. So het dit aangehou. Klim en val, klim en val. Weer en weer.’ Hy sê hy kan nie onthou hoeveel keer hy sy kop teen die stuurkonsole gestamp het nie. Was dit nie vir sy valhelm nie, was hy ná die eerste stamp bewusteloos. Die seetoestande was so erg dat Attie ook nie die enjinrevolusies kon dophou nie. Hy het net die GPS en die see dopgehou terwyl Leon sy oog op die ‘rev counter’ gehou het. ‘Dit was ’n baie scary nag. Ek het nie gedink ons sou dit maak nie. Al waaraan ek gedink het was die feit dat ek nie totsiens gesê het vir Karin nie. En wat van Leon en Quinten se families?’ Leon het intussen ’n paar brandstofsommetjies in sy kop gemaak en besef dat hulle dit nie gaan maak tot by die mond van die Breederivier nie. ‘Daar was nie ’n manier nie.’
SEA RESCUE • WINTER 2011
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Bo: Dié Google Earth kaart wys die afstand tussen Witsand en sy buurstasies, sowel as die afstand wat die bemanning in die klein Queenie Paine moes vaar om die punt te bereik waar Gulliver as vermis aangegee is.
Met 25km om te gaan het Attie stadiger gery sodat Leon ’n desperate noodoproep kon maak: ‘Stuur hulp asseblief. Ons gaan dit nie maak nie. Kommunikasie was só sleg dat dit nie duidelik was waarom hulle hulp nodig gehad het nie, maar die reaksie was onmiddelik. Stasie 30 op Agulhas het hul 8.5m Vodacom Rescuer VII te water gelaat terwyl Stilbaai se manne per pad na Witsand vertrek het. Agulhas se stasiebevelvoerder Reinard Geldenhuys sê volgens hulle berekeninge was die Queenie Paine 40 seemyl ver. ‘In daardie seetoestande sou dit ons meer as twee uur neem om hulle te bereik,’ sê hy. In Witsand se opskamer het die spanning teen daardie tyd natuurlik hemelhoog geloop. Maar geleidelik, aanvanklik amper onwaarneembaar, het die seetoestande vir die manne op die Queenie Paine begin verbeter soos hulle die windskadukant van Kaap Infanta genader het. Hulle gemoedstoestand het verder verbeter toe hulle in die verte die ligte van ’n vistreiler sien. ‘Dit het ons weer hoop gegee,’ sê Leon. ‘Ten minste kon ons mekaar weer hoor. Sewe kilometer van die basis het ons weer radiokommunikasie gekry en kon ons brandstoftenks omruil. Dit was ook fantasties om te hoor dat Agulhas se ouens op die water was en ons te hulp gesnel het. Daar was iemand op pad na ons toe.’ Met die nuus dat dinge meer rooskleurig begin lyk vir die Queenie Paine het Agulhas se Vodacom Rescuer VII stadiger begin vaar maar steeds koers gehou totdat hulle bevestiging gekry het dat Attie-hulle veilig deur die mond van die Breederivier was.
16 SEA RESCUE • WINTER 2011
Dit het die Vodacom Rescuer VII ’n adrenalien-gevulde uur geneem om te kom waar hulle was. Nadat hulle omgedraai het, het dit hulle twee uur geneem om teen die wind terug te sukkel tot in Agulhas.
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EK WEET STEEDS NIE HOE ONS DIT TERUG GEMAAK HET NIE. DIT WAS NET GELUK
Attie sê toe die Queenie Paine uiteindelik haar neus teen die sleephelling in Witsand druk het die trane van blydskap en verligting oor sy wange geloop. ‘Ek weet steeds nie hoe ons dit terug gemaak het nie. Dit was net geluk. As enigiets verkeerd geloop het, enjinprobleme, enigiets, was dit klaarpraat. Ek weet nie hoeveel engeltjies daar op daai boot was nie, maar hulle het hulle hande vol gehad. Dit was scary.’ Hanli sê teen een-uur Donderdagoggend het Troi na haar begin roep. ‘Ek het hom toilet toe geneem en terug geneem bed toe. Kort daarna het hy vas geslaap. Dit was asof hy geweet het sy pa is veilig.’ Daar is geen twyfel dat Greg West, Franz Sprung, Shaun Kennedy en Mike Morck hulle lewens te danke het aan die onbaatsugtige optrede van Attie Gunter, Leon Pretorius en Quinten Diener nie. SR
IN THE NEWS DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
12-14 August: National Boat Show, Johannesburg 18 August: NSRI AGM, Cape Town 2 September: Durban Golf Day, Royal Durban Golf Club. To take part, contact Glynis Pulford on (031) 332-9772 or email glynisp@searescue.org.za 16 September: Cape Town Golf Day, Atlantic Beach Golf Club 23-25 September: Cape Town International Boat Show 1 October: Port Elizabeth Street Collection 1 October: Koeberg 4x4 Adventure Day 6 October: Wine Auction with Rotary in Cape Town 22 October: Durban Street Collection 26 October: Wine Auction with Rotary in Johannesburg 17 December: Wilderness Street Collection
For more information on any of these events, call (021) 434-4011
THANKING OUR DONORS FREE MEDICAL CHECK-UPS FOR SIMON’S TOWN CREW
Thank you to Dr Van der Merwe of Simon’s Town, who generously agreed to perform medical check-ups for our volunteers at no charge. He told the crew that as long as they were doing the work ‘out there’, he would do the work on dry land. Thank you, Doctor; we really appreciate your support.
THREE CHEERS FOR eTHEKWINI
We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to the eThekwini Municipality for their grant of R180 000. Your support means a great deal to our volunteers.
Our sincere thanks to Barry Pogrund of Bass Gordon Chartered Accountants who hand-delivered a cheque of R50 000 from the Nathan Berman Foundation. We always enjoy the chance to personally meet our donors, to share a cup of tea and a few tales of high adventure. For those who live far afield, we encourage you to make your donation online through a secure credit-card transaction. The form includes space to give us specific instructions about which project or rescue base you would like the funds to go to. Our banking details are also on the website if you prefer to do an EFT but please be sure to use your name or phone number in the reference field, and let us know about the donation so that we can thank you personally, and issue tax and BEE certificates.
NSRI’S HEAD OFFICE IS FUNDED THROUGH OUR FAITHFUL PLATINUM SPONSORS. ALL OTHER DONATIONS CAN THEREFORE BE SET ASIDE FOR RESCUE WORK.
PLATINUM PARTNERSHIPS
GOLD PARTNERSHIPS • AMOIL (PTY) LTD • COMPASS BAKERY• DE BEERS MARINE • FREDDY HIRSCH GROUP • LUSITANIA MARKETING SERVICES • MACS MARITIME SHIPPING • MARINE PRODUCTS • NETCARE HOSPITALS • PANARGO SHIPPING • SAPPI • SVITZER-WIJSMULLER • TMS SOUTH AFRICA LTD • VIKING FISHING LTD
18 SEA RESCUE • WINTER 2011
BULLETIN BOARD
A BOOST FOR STATION 10
Darren Zimmerman receives R55 000 from their new fuel sponsor, False Bay Yacht Club (FBYC). From left: Yvette du Preez, Darren Zimmerman, Louis Duimelaar, Dennis McKillen and FBYC Commodore Chris Lee
BURNSHIELD FOR VAAL DAM
Graham Holmquist of Levtrade International (Pty) Ltd kindly arranged for the delivery of Burnshield packs and sprays that Riga Rescue donated to Station 22 (Vaal Dam). This Burnshield is invaluable in the treatment of burns. First-aid equipment is always desperately needed and donations like this are always very welcome. We’re therefore extremely grateful for this kind and thoughtful gesture. There have been quite a few occasions on the Vaal Dam where people have been severely burnt while on their boats, and because we’re quite far from the nearest hospital, the Burnshield packs will make a big difference in the treatment of individuals in the future.
LOST AT SEA!
Station 12 (Knysna) was tasked to recover a drowning victim from the sea, which entailed deploying swimmers from our boats to the rocky surf area in quite rough sea conditions. One of our hand-held Icom IC-M34 radios fell into the sea during one of these transfers. Three months after this incident, a member of the public phoned one of our crew members to say they had found a radio on the beach. Lo and behold, it was our missing Icom. After it was returned to the base, we decided to put it on the charger to see if it would still take a charge so we could use the battery on another set. Once charged one of the crew switched it on by mistake and to our amazement it worked 100 percent. To this day, it is still in operation at our base.
MAKING THE SMART CHOICE
Pick n Pay’s Smart Shopper card earns you points on just about everything in your trolley. Pick n Pay has selected NSRI as one of six charities to whom Smart Shoppers can donate their points! So please get shopping and swiping at Pick n Pay, and get your friends and family members to sign up too.
EVERY CENT COUNTS...
About a year ago, Robyn Burgess popped into our Durban office and offered her services. Now she takes charge of the Durban ‘fleet’ of collection boats moored at various till points. As a rep, she is out and about anyway and happily empties the boats, comes in to count the coins and then gets the banking ready. She is so reliable and a real pleasure to have around the office. Thank you, Robyn.
SEA RESCUE SEEKS SURVIVORS
Have you or a family member been rescued by the NSRI? If so, please send us your details and a short story about the rescue. Please include a photograph of yourself and permission for us to post the story on our website. If your story is chosen, you could be the guest of honour at one of five reunion parties this October. Send your story to info@ searescue.org.za, or SMS the word ‘rescued’ together with your name to 32773 (R1 per SMS) and we will contact you.
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REAL-LIFE RESCUE
9 BELOW STATION 11 (PORT ALFRED) VOLUNTEER LYNETTE HARBRECHT RECOUNTS THE DAY SHE AND HER FELLOW CREW MEMBERS WENT TO ASSIST A GROUP OF CAPSIZED FISHERMEN
Main photograph: No need for words – Kowie skipper Mark McArthur and Lynette Above: (from left) Station 11 crew had to wait for the tide to go out before being able to commence evacuation; casualties are helped out from the upturned hull after being trapped for more than five hours
PHOTOGRAPHS: DAVE MACGREGOR, JEROME BOULLE
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unday morning, 4h15. I was woken by the SMS tone on my phone. It could mean only one thing – call out! The news at base was not good. The 4.5m deckboat Kowie had capsized near Riet Point (about 12.5km from Port Alfred) in big surf. The skipper, Mark McArther had swum ashore to Riet Point to call for help: 10 crew were missing. By the time we reached the scene in our 4x4, there was debris all over the beach and we spotted the overturned boat, broadside to the surf approximately 100m from the shore. It was dark – no moon – and cold. There was no way to reach the vessel in the big surf. Reef was scattered throughout the area so we knew getting a boat in there would not be an option. We had to sit and wait for the tide to drop, occasionally walking along the waterline searching for any sign of missing crew. Just before 7h00, we spotted the first casualty and retrieved his body. At this stage the mood was noticeably sombre and we were now expecting the worst – having to retrieve the bodies of the additional nine crew either from the surf or from the vessel itself. This was not something I knew how to deal with. I was already shaken from being confronted with one dead casualty and I didn’t know how I was going to react to another nine. As soon as it was safe, fellow rescue swimmer Chris Kirchoff and I were tasked with approaching the upturned vessel (now on hard ground), approximately 20m from the beach. I banged on the hull with a piece of broomstick the skipper had given me and was astounded to hear muffled banging coming from the inside. I don’t know who got the biggest fright, the trapped crew or myself. I couldn’t contain myself and screamed, ‘They’re alive, they’re alive!’. At once our crew, together with the SAPS (15 Squadron C Flight) and SA Airforce (BK-117) and three rescue swimmers from Station 6 (Port Elizabeth) sprang into action. It was frenetic – the scene may have resembled a farmyard full of headless chickens, but everyone was tasked with a job and everyone was operating according to plan. While we were waiting for tools to be flown in from a toolhire business, Chris and I stayed with the vessel and continued to bang on the hull – three times and wait for response – three times. Every time I heard them knocking from inside, I was filled with excitement. Knocks came from several positions against the hull, so we knew there was more than one
survivor. But we didn’t know how many of the nine were still alive. Air and sea searches continued all the while until we could determine the answer. There was now an air of expectancy among the bystanders and you could feel the tension. When the tools arrived, we used a chainsaw to cut a hole in the hull. There was silence as everyone literally held their breath. Georgie [Smith] tore a small section of the hull away and there, peering at us with the biggest eyes I have ever seen was the face of a crewman, who had been trapped in the dark for the last five to six hours. It was a sight I shall never forget. Once the hole was made larger and we started pulling the survivors out one by one, there was such joy in my heart and tears in the eyes of many of rescue crews on the beach.
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PEERING AT US ... WAS THE FACE OF A CREWMAN, WHO HAD BEEN TRAPPED FOR THE LAST FIVE HOURS
Unbelievably, all nine of the missing crew were accounted for, alive and physically unhurt. All were overjoyed, overcome with emotions that cannot be described, as they were reunited with their skipper. The scene was tempered by the news that they had lost a fellow crew member and they gathered together for a spontaneous prayer, both for their survival and for their lost friend. Personally, I finally realised what it meant to be part of the NSRI team. The fact that we can make a difference, the fact that we helped save nine lives that day. We felt elated that we had managed to contribute in some way to the success of the operation, but also realised that the reason we succeeded was that everyone pulled together and several emergency service sectors operated in a coordinated and organised manner. My lasting impression will always be the sight of the first face peering out of the darkness and the hug the skipper gave me when everyone was safe. He didn’t have to say anything, he just held me tightly and I felt then that this was what it was about. That single moment captures the essence of NSRI and I was proud to call myself a crew member that day. SR
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BEHIND THE SCENES
Far left: Pedro De Albuquerque boasts a long history with Cape Town Radio Above: John Prinsloo has been working as a radio operator at Cape Town Radio for 38 years
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PHOTOGRAPHS: ANDREW INGRAM
I HAVE DEALT WITH HUNDREDS (OF CALLS), BUT THE OCEANOS... THAT WAS SOMETHING
I ask whether any one emergency they have dealt with stands out above all the others. ‘I have dealt with hundreds,’says John. ‘But the Oceanos... That was something.’ The passenger cruise ship Oceanos sank on 4 August 1991. There were 581 passengers and crew on board the Greek cruise liner, which was sailing from Cape Town via East London to Durban. She sank off the Transkei’s Coffee Bay. It was after 10pm on Saturday night and one of the men on duty at Cape Town Radio was Stephen Clark, a radio operator with 23 years’ experience. He still remembers the event clearly. ‘They sent the SOS in Morse. The alarm, and then ... dot dot dot dash dash dash dot dot dot. ‘We got their call sign and position, which when we plotted it turned out to be in the middle of the Karoo. ‘And when we radioed back to the ship, there was no response,’ said Stephen. But they had her call sign. It took a few minutes to work out that it was the Oceanos and that she was off Transkei, and one of the world’s great rescues swung into action. Not a single life was lost. Even a dog was taken off the ship, and to this day it is considered to be a feather in the cap of the South African rescue services. Cape Town Radio was established in 1910 at the old lighthouse site at Kommetjie, on the western seaboard of the Cape Peninsula. During World War II the operators intercepted distress calls from allied ships under attack from submarines or being shelled by German battleships, which were then relayed to the relevant military authority. Towards the middle of the war, the station moved to Wireless
Road in Kommetjie, where it shared the premises with The Royal Navy, and then in 1965 they moved to Koeberg Road, Milnerton, into premises vacated by the SABC. In March 1997 they moved to the present premises in Bosmansdam Road, Milnerton, close to the building in which Marconi established the Wireless and Telegraph Company in 1919. When the Suez Canal was closed in 1967 because of the Israeli/Arab conflict, Cape Town Radio really established itself on the world maritime map. Playing a vital role in controlling communication traffic for thousands of ships that diverted to the Cape route, the operators were kept on their toes. Congestion on the airways was chronic at times, with as many as 27 ships waiting in turn on the various circuits for service. Congestion was as bad in the ports. Frequently there were more than 100 ships at anchor in Table Bay seeking bunkers, stores and water. The reputation earned by Cape Town Radio during those eight years that Suez was closed has been maintained to this day. Sometimes ships passing through Suez still communicate with Europe via Cape Town Radio. Although things are much quieter for the operators now, they still need a minimum of six people to operate the commercial traffic and monitor our area for emergencies. Port Elizabeth and Durban Radio have been moved into the same office, and the three Solas (Safety of Lives at Sea) rooms are now next to each other. Radio traffic is diverted to these small sound-proofed rooms from 38 repeaters up and down the coast. Their area of responsibility spans across 28.5-million square kilometres of land and sea. On the day that I visited Cape Town Radio, Pedro De Albuquerque was on duty for commercial traffic (ships, aircraft and various islands). He sat hunched behind his computer watching beacons light up, showing him which repeater was activated by the vessel calling. The days of huge radios filled with dials are gone. With his mouse, Pedro made the changes to channels needed. Instead of the large and cumbersome headphones he used 25 years ago, he held a small mic that has only one ear covering. On the sound-proofed wall, high above his computer, a row of speakers spat out static. It is not uncommon for Pedro to speak to a ship off Durban – which has called Durban Radio – and then, seconds later, reply to another call for Cape Town Radio. Only the activation of different repeaters around the coast prevents the ship that called Durban Radio from thinking that he was hearing the same voice that answered him now calling himself Cape Town Radio. The men and woman of Telkom’s Maritime Services, which we know as Cape Town Radio, are part of the international fraternity of the sea. When the chips are down and there is a Mayday call, there is nothing quite like the calm voice of Cape Town radio telling you, ‘Mayday received’. SR The man who went overboard from the yacht Walkabout in the Mozambique Channel managed to swim ashore and is alive and well.
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STATION UPDATE
FOR WANT OF A
STATION FOR THE STATION 26 (KOMMETJIE) TEAM THAT OPERATES FROM A SINGLE GARAGE WITH THEIR EQUIPMENT AND VEHICLES SPLIT OVER A 6KM RADIUS, IT SEEMS THAT RED TAPE CAN BE AS TREACHEROUS AS THE ATLANTIC OCEAN ITSELF. BY LES AUPIAIS
T
he sea is deceptively calm off the Kommetjie coastline. Swells roll in over the kelp beds and only the experienced know how to navigate the few clear and narrow channels. Currents are treacherous and every now and then a wave as high as 2m will catch the fishermen with their nets weighted down with crayfish. To maximise their quota, the small craft carry five men who mostly shy away from wearing life jackets. Their fathers and grandfathers fished without them, and tradition dies hard in these parts. The ‘rogue’ wave flips the boat within seconds and unless the men are able to hang onto a buoy or the upturned hull, the weight of their boots and warm gear will pull them under the icy Atlantic water. Adrenalin pumps as the fishermen’s hearts race in panic. Hypothermia sets in fast. On land, accident victims have the ‘golden hour’ to be saved from death by paramedics. The Atlantic is less generous and NSRI volunteers have a precious 12 minutes to respond and save lives.
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‘It’s the perfect recipe for a disaster,’ says Station 26 (Kommetjie) station commander Ian Klopper. ‘If the fishermen are able to send up a flare, and it’s sighted – or someone actually sees the capsized craft – a call is routed via our emergency number and Port Control, and then we are called.’ So far, so good. For NSRI teams with a boathouse, station and full facilities within 100m of the high-tide mark and right near a slipway, rescue craft and the volunteers can be launched within minutes. But for the past 13 years, Kommetjie volunteers have fought to save life and property – shark attack victims, fishermen washed into powerful currents, grounded vessels, capsized boats, beached whales and divers in distress – with their hands firmly tied. They operate from a single garage in Kommetjie at the end of an access road often clogged by long lines of vehicles and boats queuing for their turn to take to sea off the slipway. The
PHOTOGRAPHS: ANDREW INGRAM
Main photograph: The piece of land where Station 26 (Kommetjie) hopes to build its Sea Rescue base Above: (left to right) Homeless – Spirit of Winelands is stored 6km away from the slipway; The base: volunteers Nick Marnitz and Bianca Engels in the single garage that serves as their base boathouse
garage has a single electrical outlet, one overhead light bulb, no toilet or shower facilities and is far too small for their two boats, quad bike and Rescue Runner, which have to be housed 6km away. Their tractor is in Noordhoek. Split resources add critical minutes to their response and rescue time, extra minutes will seem like hours to drowning men. Survivors say that with no sense of immediate help, it is all too easy to think of simply letting go... ‘Can you imagine what it’s like,’ says Ian, ‘when we do arrive and people in the crowd comment about what took us so long?’ Local resident and avid recreational fisherman, Gary Froud, has experienced the problem first hand. ‘We capsized our boat on a relatively calm Saturday morning about 800m off the lighthouse, five minutes from the launch slipway,’ he says. ‘It took the NSRI 40 minutes to get to us. Fortunately there were a lot of boats in the vicinity and we weren’t in the water too long. Had this happened in the afternoon when there are fewer boats at sea, our situation would have been far worse.’ ‘If the NSRI had a proper base, it would reduce their response time and allow them to provide a better service to the community and save lives,’ he adds. ‘We all have to remember that the service is free and that it’s manned by dedicated volunteers. If the station’s not built here, they may consider focussing their efforts elsewhere.’ Froud’s point is critical. The small band of volunteers, men and women with their own jobs and families, who have to strip to their underwear in cramped quarters and perform dangerous rescues, must then return freezing and wet to hose themselves down with cold water before they return home. ‘The volunteers are fantastic,’ says Ian. ‘And they’re prepared to risk their lives, but to be honest, it’s becoming more difficult to attract volunteers to Kommetjie under these conditions. It’s just not fair on them.’ Ian started as station commander 13 years ago. Two other commanders have held the position and now the job is back in Ian’s court. His frustration, though, is not based on critical bystanders or a cold sluicing after a rescue, it’s the red tape
that has tangled the process of securing them a permanent home for more than a decade. In theory, Station 26 need not spend one more season this way. After turning down a proposed move to Soetwater (a bay several kilometres away and deemed far too dangerous by local fishermen because of rocks and heavy wave conditions), they have been able to earmark suitable land and have approval from the local residents to build a well designed station just more than 100m from the slipway.
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THE VOLUNTEERS HAVE BEEN CALLED TO OVER 100 OPERATIONS. ... SAVED 28 LIVES, ONE WITHIN 30 MINUTES OF THE STATION OPENING The NSRI has drawn up plans, environmental impact assessment studies have been done, and there are financial donors in the wings. Provision has even been made for the erection of municipal toilets adjoining the building for public use out of the NSRI’s budget. With wheelchair access, the KRRA and local residents demanded. And a baby changing room, they added. And provision for temporary toilets while the main structures were under construction, was the next request. Yes. Yes. And yes, the NSRI agreed. But the toilets, much like those at the centre of the political fracas during the provincial elections earlier this year, appear to be at the centre of the Kommetjie problem. They were designed to be part of the adjoining building but the council required them to be self-standing entities. The draft plans were amended. Then the toilets had to be moved further from the main building to create a narrow ‘no-man’s land.’ The plans were amended. Then a home owner who discovered that the toilets would be only metres from his property boundary, lodged a complaint. Simple, said the NSRI team; we’ll shift the
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KOMMETJIE
toilets to a better position on the opposite side of the proposed station, near the main access road and with no dark alley behind them so that ‘undesirables’ would not take advantage of any obscured entrances. It simply required the plans to be rotated on the concept diagram. Done. So surely proper plans could be drawn up and the project green-lighted? Somewhere, somehow, the process has stalled. For no clear reason it appears, other than ‘these things take time’, the project has become as firmly tangled in red tape as a drowned body might be in kelp. Ward councillor Alderman Felicity Anne Purchase comments: ‘When I queried it [the green light for the station] last week [end of May], the affidavits from the objectors were not yet signed and submitted. Once that is done the application will be fast-tracked.’ Ian’s chasing the paperwork and hopes fervently that this is the last paper hurdle to leap. Any further delay may cost lives; it’s certainly costing money. ‘One of my major problems is losing sponsorship,’ says Ian. ‘Donors allocate funds in a particular financial year based on
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concrete plans and the deal sealed. If the i’s aren’t dotted and the t’s crossed, we say goodbye to millions of rands.’ For those served by Station 26, the situation is even more dire. Over the years the volunteers have been called to more than 100 operations. They’ve saved 18 lives, one within 30 minutes of opening the station. They’ve towed 21 boats to safety and assisted many more. They were there when Ikhan Tanda went down in 2001 and all 18 crew members were saved. They’ve assisted with three shark attacks. They are fit, pretty much fearless and put anyone in distress at sea first before their own families. They are not lawyers, accountants or clerks but right now it seems that it will need more paperwork than physical prowess to get the project rubber-stamped. Meanwhile there are few precious months left before 14 November, the opening of the crayfish season. If the first sod is not turned very soon, Station 26 faces another season of homelessness and uncertainty. For those subsistence fishermen who risk their lives to eke out a living, for divers just out for a handful of crayfish for the pot, or for anyone at the mercy of the Atlantic in these parts, it stacks the odds against them. It’s now a race between time and red tape. SR
PHOTOGRAPH: CHAD CHAPMAN
Above: On 21 June 2011 a humpback whale, which became entangled in fishing nets, was freed by members of the South Africa Whale Disentanglement Network, assisted by NSRI Kommetjie volunteers
MEDICAL FOCUS
CAN YOU
SEE THE NUMBERS? WHAT IT MEANS TO BE COLOUR BLIND. BY DR CLEEVE ROBERTSON
IMAGES: SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
O
ne of the standard tests for people who wish to qualify as small-vessel skippers is the colour-blindness test. The reason for this testing is because candidates need to interpret navigational lights, the two principal colours being red (port) and green (starboard). The eye interprets colour through the retina, where rods and cones receive light rays passing into the eye and then send signals to the brain. The cones are the colour-interpreting agents and contain red, green and blue pigments that influence the interpretation and perception of colour over the full range of the optical spectrum of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Men are more prone to colour blindness (about eight percent) than women (half a percent). In my experience it’s rare to find a woman who is colour blind – most women will define colours in elaborate detail whereas it’s a waste of time to ask a man what cerise is. Colour blindness is inherited so somewhere in the family there will be a history of colour blindness. In reality it is rare for someone to be completely colour blind and most affected people have a degree of colour blindness of varying severity. The problem is more one of the differentiation or brightness of colours, and those affected see red, orange, yellow and green as either a similar colour closer to red or to green. The colours blend into one another, producing dull greenish or reddish shades that span all four colours in one and not the very distinct colour differentiation normal people would see. There are very obvious practical everyday challenges to colour blindness, like distinguishing between traffic lights, navigational lights, wire colours, clothes, etc, but most affected
people adapt and solve these issues, leading completely normal lives. People who wish to operate boats at night and perform watch-keeping duties must pass a Lantern or Ishihara colour test. The Lantern test is a practical test to see whether the person can differentiate between red, green and white lights at night. The Ishihara test is a series of colour plates consisting of dots of varying shades of red to green that make up numbers. Through the ability of the candidate to read the correct numbers, an assessment can be made of the degree of colour blindness. The ability to interpret colour correctly does influence your career choice and so, for example, being able to select the right wire to cut as a bomb-disposal expert would be quite important. You could become a seaman but you would not be able to keep watch or be a skipper with severe colour blindness. SR DR CLEEVE ROBERTSON is the Director of Emergency Medical Services, Western Cape, and voluntary Chief Medical Advisor to the NSRI. Apart from being passionate about caring for people, Dr Robertson loves mountain climbing and scubadiving. He’s also involved in underwater photography and skipper training.
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REAL LIFE
ON FOREIGN
SHORES
PHOTOGRAPHS: REINARD GELDENHUYS, DEON ALBERTS
O
n 11 March this year, an earthquake measuring nine on the Richter scale hit the east coast of Japan. It was the most powerful earthquake ever to hit the country, and the fifth most powerful in the world (since modern record keeping began in 1900). The earthquake triggered a tsunami with waves as high as 38m that travelled up to 10km inland, flattening and destroying everything in its path. The world looked on in disbelief as the loss of life and destruction of buildings, homes, railways, roads and farmlands mounted. The island country was devastated and in desperate need of assistance. Overberg Fire Department head and Station 30 (Agulhas) Statcom Reinard Geldenhuys was watching what was fast becoming familiar TV footage with his daughters, Larissa (14) and Leandra (16) on Sunday 20 March. ‘It was about 11am and we’d just come back from church,’ Reinard says. ‘They were showing footage of Fukushima. We just watched... It’s was impossible to comprehend the world of hurt these people were going through.’ Not long after that, the phone rang. Reinard still marvels at the timing. ‘It was Rescue South Africa asking if I was available to join its Disaster Response team going to Japan. I said yes.’ His decision didn’t go down too well with his children. ‘Leandra wouldn’t talk to me for the next few hours,’ Reinard smiles. ‘It was very difficult for them. I was going into an unknown situation, and there was a very real danger of aftershocks and a second tsunami. I was quite nervous,’ he admits. Reinard and fellow Overberg Fire and NSRI team member Deon Alberts didn’t have much time to get ready, and were expected at Cape Town International the next day at 08h00. Deon Alberts from Station 30
HEAD OF THE OVERBERG FIRE DEPARTMENT REINARD GELDENHUYS SPEAKS OF HIS EXPERIENCE AS PART OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN RESCUE TEAM THAT ASSISTED JAPAN AFTER ITS EARTHQUAKE. BY WENDY MARITZ
Despite the fact that Japan had experienced such a debilitating disaster, the government had been very specific about the conditions surrounding foreign-aid. All team members needed valid passports and visas, and they would have to be completely self-sufficient. This meant taking along everything they would need, including fresh water, food, tents, as well as all their rescue equipment, which amounted to about 14 tons. ‘It was equipment we could operate by hand, like lifting bags, hydraulic tools and concrete saws,’ Reinard explains.
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THERE‘S A REASON WE ONLY STAYED ONE WEEK. THE PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TOLL IS HUGE The rescue team was deployed to the Sendai area. For Reinard the devastation was hard hitting. ‘I’ve had years of experience in search and rescue,’ he says, ‘and I’m fairly used to seeing disaster areas, after floods and fire, but this was different. This was kilometre after kilometre of devastation and with it thousands of ruined lives. They were conducting air searches near to where we were camped. Nine choppers were taking off and returning every seven to 10 minutes with bodies, which were then transferred to a temporary morgue nearby,’ he continues. The team set up camp near a sports stadium. Conditions had become extreme. It snowed, and the temperatures dropped to -9˚C at night and to about -4˚C in the tents. A photograph that says it all
Reinard takes a short break
STATION UPDATE
NEW STATIONS ON THE NSRI MAP
SEA RESCUE HAS TWO NEW STATIONS IN THE EASTERN CAPE. ANDREW INGRAM CAUGHT UP WITH THE STATCOMS OF STATIONS 37 (JEFFREYS BAY) AND 36 (OYSTER BAY)
Main photograph: (from left to right) Shaun Kotze, Rieghard van Rensburg, Joshua du Pisanie, Rian Raubenheimer, Robin Brown and Lohan Potgieter in the front Left: (from left to right) Chops Vermaak, Francis Linstroom, Johan Linstroom, Alison Vickery, Arthur Loretz, Melisa Loretz, Mark and David Mans, and Luvo Keyi
N
orth of Cape St Francis is the surfers’ paradise of Jeffreys Bay and to the south is the seaside village of Oyster Bay. Both places now have Sea Recue stations, backed up by the much larger St Francis Bay base. At Jeffreys Bay, NSRI operates two jet skis that were donated in 2010. ‘For the St Francis boat to get here takes around 20 to 25 minutes,’ says station commander Rieghard Janse Van Rensburg. ‘And that’s often too long when you have a swimmer in the water.’ Like most of our other stations, Station 37 (Jeffreys Bay) was not the result of an instant decision, but rather a dream that stretched back almost 10 years. For Sea Rescue it is only worth investing in setting up a station once there is a core group of dedicated volunteers. During the early part of 2010, a group of volunteers came together and started training in St Francis with the aim of becoming the first Jeffreys Bay crew. Various options for a base were discussed and the suitability of the tower behind the Jeffreys Bay Ski Boat Club was raised. It was originally donated to the Kouga Municipality, but it had become seriously neglected. A few weeks later a proposal was presented to the local council and, in October last year, it was agreed by all parties that this would be the site for the new Sea Rescue base. ‘We have nine volunteers so far, and they are really keen. To get a class-four coxswain’s ticket, which allows an individual to skipper a single-engined boat or jet ski, a crewman needs 50 hours of sea time. So the crew trains twice a week – once with the St Francis Bay crew and once in J-Bay,’ explains Rieghard. Now that’s commitment. The story at Oyster Bay is much the same. In December 2008 the chokka boat Kingfisher went down off Oyster Bay. Unfortunately, despite the huge rescue
response, including two helicopters and a fixed-wing plane, 11 lives were lost. When Mark Mans moved to Oyster Bay from Cape Town, he, like Rieghard, joined Station 21 (St Francis Bay). During the December holidays, Mark volunteered to be on standby in Oyster Bay, where he was spending the holidays, as a first responder for any sea-rescue incident in the area.
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WE CAN GET TO ANY EMERGENCY THAT HAPPENS FAST – FROM LAND AND FROM THE SEA As it happened, two youngsters got into trouble in the surf. Mark launched his jet-bike and, before anyone else could get even close, he had got the youngsters safely out of the water. The need for a station in Oyster Bay was obvious. ‘I started training guys two years ago,’ says Mark, the first station commander at Station 36. ‘It was clear that we needed access to the coast through farmlands. And we also needed coast watchers. After a concerted effort, the station now has 10 coast watchers, all of whom know the coast intimately. ‘The access to remote areas is also much easier now. We can get to any emergency that happens fast – from land and from the sea,’ says Mark. The station is in its infancy. But with four fully trained seagoing crew, and the back-up of the 10 shore-based coast watchers, Oyster Bay is an official NSRI station. Their 4,7m RIB, Pierre, is currently stored in a shipping container and Mark’s jet-bike is kept at his home. But this is set to change. Planning is underway to build a rescue station that will allow the Oyster Bay volunteers to serve the local community a lot faster than was previously possible. SR
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THE BIG BLUE
SOCIALITES OF THE SEA GEORGINA JONES TELLS US MORE ABOUT THE OCEAN’S MOST ENCHANTING CREATURES
A
round 50-million years ago, a cloven-hoofed creature of the swamps started living more in water than on land. Over time, its descendants became wholly aquatic and their bodies much more fish-like. Being freed from the constraints of gravity, these animals lost their rear limbs and developed a powerful tail. Their forelimbs became flattened flippers for steering and stabilisation, and their nostrils moved to the top of their heads. Their diet changed too, taking advantage of the fish and invertebrates swarming in the ancient seas. By about 30-million years ago, the dolphin’s ancestors were living much as its descendants do today. Today, dolphins are found in all oceans of the world and even in some rivers. The 36 known species of marine dolphins are part of a larger family of marine mammals, the cetaceans, which include whales and porpoises.Their closest land-dwelling relatives are, strangely enough, probably hippos. Although dolphins have developed to look like fish, their terrestrial heritage remains. Instead of swimming by moving their tails from side to side, dolphins swim by moving their tails up and down. This vertical spine movement is derived from the mammalian gallop, just as the sideways movement of a fish spine is reflected in the side-to-side running action of a lizard. Dolphins use this transformed gallop when they porpoise, a way of swimming where they dive out of and into the water as they swim. This allows them to take a breath every time they leap while maintaining high speeds – very useful for hunting prey or escaping.
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Dolphin predators, however, are few. They are usually only vulnerable to other, larger dolphins, such as orcas, or else to the bigger sharks. Human activity poses a far greater threat. Despite this, dolphins are known to help humans, sometimes even coming to the aid of floundering swimmers. Also, dolphin groups offshore of villages in Brazil and Mauritania help human fishermen by herding fish towards their nets. The dolphins’ share is the fish that escape. This is possibly an elaboration of normal dolphin hunting behaviour: they are social animals that hunt in groups. They may surround their prey, herding them into a bait ball, or crowd them up against a barrier such as the hull of a boat or, indeed, a fishing net. Perhaps the most important evidence of dolphins’ land-dwelling past is their lungs, which require them to come to the surface for air at regular intervals. Hunting, mating, eluding predators, giving birth, suckling their young and sleeping must all take this need for air into account. Dolphins only breathe through their blowholes. The young are born near the surface and tail first so that the blowhole emerges last and the baby dolphin can be lifted to the surface quickly for its first breath. Dolphin breathing is not a reflex action; it’s voluntary, which means they cannot sleep in the way we understand sleeping. Instead, dolphins rest one hemisphere of their brains at a time, while the active hemisphere and its opposing eye keep watch, and also keep the dolphin surfacing to breathe. The sleep cycle usually lasts several hours, during which time the dolphin will swim slowly at the surface, sometimes closing one eye.
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FOR ANY MARINE LIFE QUERIES, VISIT WWW.SURG.CO.ZA. IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
DOLPHINS’ SENSE OF ECHO-LOCATION IS SO ACUTE THEY CAN DETECT AN OBJECT SMALLER THAN A TENNIS BALL 100M AWAY
One aspect of dolphins’ mammalian heritage that has almost completely vanished is hair. Some hairs are still present on newborns, and there is a type of river dolphin that has a hairy snout, probably for motion detection in its turbid environment, but apart from that, dolphins are sleek-skinned and hairless. Their need to maintain a constant body temperature has instead been achieved through a layer of insulating blubber and clever heat-exchange systems. So efficient, in fact, that dolphins are more likely to need cooling down than warming up. This is particularly true in their reproductive systems. Male dolphins’ testes are concealed inside their bodies to maintain their streamlined form, and must be cooled down to prevent the fragile gametes from overheating. The same is true of pregnant dolphins. The womb and foetus must be kept cool. This is accomplished by a brilliant feat of heat exchange. Cool blood from the uninsulated tail is pumped directly to these areas and, once there, is split into successively finer capillaries flowing around the testes or womb, keeping them cooler than the surrounding hard-working muscles. Any extra heat that needs to be lost can be transferred to the surrounding water through the dolphins’ flippers, which are also uninsulated and are heavily supplied with blood vessels for this purpose. One of the more interesting aspects of dolphin life is echo-location, and this is where mammalian hair plays a crucial role. Though dolphins have good eyesight, their sense of echo-location is exquisitely sensitive and they combine a visual image of their world with the sonar picture
their whistles and clicks bounce back at them. Exactly how this process works is still poorly understood, but it is thought that dolphins begin by squeezing air up their nasal passages where it causes vibrations that are amplified by a complex fat-containing organ known as the melon. (This gives dolphins their rounded foreheads.) Different fat molecules in the melon combined with bony structures and muscles change the tones of the clicks, squeaks and pops produced and probably direct the sound waves out into the water. These sounds encounter underwater objects and bounce back, are amplified by the lower jaw and sent to the ear, which contains a thick forest of vibration-sensitive hairs. From here the sound signal is sent to the brain for interpretation. So acute is this sense that some species are capable of detecting an object smaller than a tennis ball more than 100m away. Dolphins have long been thought to be particularly intelligent. They are among the very few species known to use tools: female dolphins off the coast of Australia teach their daughters to use a sponge to cover their snouts, probably as protection, in their searches for their spiny sand-dwelling prey. They also readily find ‘play’ objects and spend much of their lives in creative play, often considered a sign of braininess. Also, their brain mass to body size ratio is beaten only by humans. Attempts to establish the nature of dolphin intelligence have, however, been hindered by a human inability to imagine just how a dolphin might think. These playful, complex, sociable animals inhabit a world we still yearn to share. SR
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Finding Gulliver On 15 June this year, Station 33 (Witsand) crew experienced the worst storm of their lives as they battled to bring the crew of the overturned yacht Gulliver safely to shore. Here is their story: Attie Gunter was in high spirits. The 27-year-old farmer had just returned from a magnificent holiday in Mozambique. The fishing was good and, although he was tired from the long drive, he was excited to be back on his farm on the outskirts of Witsand, near the mouth of the Breede River. He put a call through to his deputy StatCom and found that while he was away the station had been quiet. No call-outs. Settling in for the evening, he had noticed a deterioration in the weather, but he had a lot to catch up on at the farm, so didn’t pay too much attention to it. Until the call came from his flanking station at Still Bay. An EPIRB (emergency position indicating radio beacon) had been activated off Cape Infanta, and Still Bay’s 7.3m rescue boat was out of commission. Could he please handle the call? Without hesitation Attie agreed and the SMS message was sent out to his crew. ‘MIS:NSRI Station 33 Call Out.’ It was 19h10. Crewman Leon Pretorius, a young estate agent, was at home with his wife, Hanli, and their four-year-old son, Troi, when the message came though. ‘He normally shouts “bye” and is gone, but this time he said, “I love you. I really love you,” and gave Troi a kiss,’ says Hanli. Down at the rescue base the crew gathered. As some started preparing the little 5.5m rescue boat Queenie Paine for an unusually long trip, Attie got on the phone to get as much information as he could before launching. It seemed that the activated EPIRB could well belong to the 40-foot catamaran Gulliver, owned by Cape St Francis businessman Greg West. Earlier in the day Greg’s wife, Marcelle, couldn’t reach him on his cellphone and she was sure that Gulliver was in trouble. Marcelle started to make calls. She got hold of a Sea Rescue volunteer friend in Knysna and then Cape Town Radio. Through her perseverance, the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Cape Town called out the NSRI, and the rescue bases at Agulhas, Still Bay and Witsand were put on standby. At 21h10 Witsand’s Queenie Paine was launched with Attie at the helm. His crew were Leon and Quinten Diener. The Breede river had been in flood. It was still running fast and high, and almost immediately the rescue boat hit a sandbank that had been moved by the flood. They worked their way around it and at the mouth of the Breede, they got out illumination flares. The moon was blood red. It was minutes before a total lunar eclipse as the first flare raced into the sky. It started to drop and the next was fired. And another. This way, there should be enough time to get through the 500m breaker line ... before darkness enveloped them.
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From left to right: Witsand volunteers Charmaine Prins, Franco Meyer, Johnny Swart, Attie Gunter, Karen Eybers, Leon Pretorius and Quinten Diener all crowd into the little Queenie Paine showing the positions of the crew and casualties on the frightening journey back from the stricken Gulliver.
The eclipse was at its peak, and the clouds closing in made it pitch dark. The wind was strong but it was not too bad. The little rescue boat was cracking along at a good speed on course to the last position of the EPIRB. But then they left the shelter of Cape Infanta and all hell broke loose. The waves were huge. They were breaking in all directions, and running with the wind behind them, the rescue boat smashed into breaking wave after breaking wave; the spray was blowing from behind straight past them. ‘It was crazy,’ said Leon, who was the radio operator on the call. ‘We were doing around 35 km/h, so the wind must have been at least 60km/h.’ Leon got hold of Cape Town Radio and found out that the weather was deteriorating fast. The swell had gone from 5 to 8m. As Attie opened the throttles again, the rescue crew struggled to see through the spray. He turned the nose of the rescue boat onto the new bearing that the MRCC had provided for the latest EPIRB position. The advice that the crew had was to get to the position, fire one flare and if there was no response, turn around. It was too dangerous for the small rescue boat alone in those conditions. By this time Sea Rescue operations manager, Mark Hughes, was in his office watching the rescue boat track on his computer. It had become obvious that this was an extremely dangerous mission. The Altec Netstar tracker installed in the rescue boat was proving to be invaluable, and all the way up the coast, senior NSRI men were holding their breath as the rescue boat’s breadcrumb line tracked towards the position of the beacon. Queenie Paine reached the point where the crew hoped they’d find Gulliver. The sea was whipped into a fury and the crew had to shout to hear each other above the wind. There was no yacht. Leon reached for an emergency red flare, pulled the trigger, and it exploded 1 000 feet above them, casting an eerie red glow over the white-capped waves. And then it was whipped away and extinguished by the wind. Attie wiped salt out of his eyes. He thought that he had seen a light in the distance. Then the other two saw it. They had no idea how far it was but it was the last chance. At 22h33 Leon depressed the mic on Queenie Paine’s VHF
TRUE-LIFE RESCUE
radio, ‘Cape Town Radio, Cape Town Radio, Cape Town Radio, this is Rescue 33, Rescue 33, Rescue 33 ... We have the yacht in sight. Over.’ Attie guided the Queenie Paine up to the overturned hull of Gulliver and saw that all four crew were in the life raft, which was tied to the hull of the catamaran. ‘Are you guys OK?’ he called. Communications had again been lost and the shore controllers at Witsand watched the breadcrumb track of the rescue boat drifting at 2 km/h, not knowing whether the rescue boat had now also capsized or whether they were taking a long time to transfer the survivors. ‘It was very difficult to transfer them into our boat. The one guy could not stand and they were all in different stages of hypothermia,’ said Attie. As Greg West, Gulliver’s skipper, came onto the rescue boat Attie turned around and apologised for coming in such a small boat. ‘I’ll take it,’ said Greg. Fifteen minutes after coming alongside the life raft, the four men had been safely transferred into the rescue boat. Waves had been breaking over the pontoons and the now heavily laden rescue boat, herself, was in grave danger of capsizing. There was no time to try to get the yachtsmen into foul-weather gear. Leon had given one man his jacket and Attie stopped Quinten from taking his off. ‘The wind was verskriklik hard. I don’t think that I will be able to explain it to anyone. It’s water from all sides. We just told them to hold tight, and I said, “We’ll try and get you home”,’ says Attie. ‘We began to panic because when we tried to pull away nothing happened.’ After what seemed like ages, the engines forced the hull out of the water and the wet-deck started to drain. Leon had managed to get Cape Town Radio again. Before communications were once again lost, he had given them their position and said they were on their way back to base. At Leon’s home in Witsand, little Troi was talking in his sleep and tossing and turning. Hanli could not quieten him down. ‘It was strange. Unlike him,’ says Hanli. The rescue boat that his father was on, with the four survivors, was in the worst weather that any of them had ever experienced. Quinten was put in the bow in an effort to prevent the boat from flipping and the yachtsmen were moved as far forward as they could get. The rescue boat climbed up a wave, smashed through the top and the engines screamed as they left the water. And the boat fell into the trough. Again. And again. Attie’s head smashed into the console for the umpteenth time. It was impossible to tell when the boat would hit the trough. ‘I was very grateful for my helmet,’ said Attie. Conditions were so bad that Attie could not see his rev counter. Leon took over, and Attie fixed his concentration on the GPS and tried to gauge the sea. It was simply not possible to do more.
‘It was a scary night. I did not think that we would make it. I remembered that I had not said goodbye to my girlfriend, Karen. And thought about Leon and Quinten’s families.’ Leon had done some fuel calculations in his head and realised that they could not make it back. With 25km to go before getting back, Attie throttled back enough for Leon to put a desperate message through. ‘Please send assistance. We are not going to make it.’ Communications were so bad that it was not clear why they needed help, but the response was instant. Cape Town Radio repeated the message and Vodacom Rescuer VII was scrambled from Agulhas, as well as a crew from Still Bay who responded via road. ‘According to our GPS, they were 40 miles from us. In those conditions, it would take us more than two hours to get there,’ said Agulhas station commander Reinard Geldenhuys.
“
THE HEAVILY LADEN RESCUE BOAT, HERSELF, WAS NOW IN DANGER OF CAPSIZING
The tension in Witsand rescue base was palpable. Gradually, almost imperceptibly, conditions were getting better for the little rescue boat. They were working their way into the lee of Cape Infanta. In the distance the crew could see the lights of a trawler. ‘We had hope again,’ said Leon. ‘We could talk again. We could hear each other. And 7km from the base we got comms. And we were able to refuel.’ ‘It was fantastic to hear that Agulhas was on the water, that there was someone on the way for us,’ said Attie. Although Agulhas’s 8.5m Vodacom Rescuer VII throttled back, they kept on course until they had confirmation that Queenie Paine was safely through the bar. And then they turned around. The adrenaline-filled trip that had taken the Agulhas’s rescue boat an hour, took two and a half hours on the way back as they fought their way through the maelstrom. As the Queenie Paine’s nose touched the slipway, Attie felt warm tears of relief running down his cheeks. ‘I think that we were very lucky. I still don’t know how we got back. But, ja, it was just luck. If anything else had happened, it would have been ... over ... engine failure ... ‘I don’t know how many angels we had on that boat, but they had their hands full. It was scary.’ ‘Mama,’ called Troi. It was one in the morning. ‘I took him to the toilet and when we got back to his bed, he fell fast asleep. It was like he knew that Leon was safe,’ said Hanli. There is no doubt that the lives of Greg West, Franz Sprung, Shaun Kennedy and Mike Morck were saved by the bravery of volunteers Attie Gunter, Leon Pretorius and Quinten Diener. SR
SEA RESCUE • WINTER 2011
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STN 17 • HERMANUS
STN 27 • VICTORIA LAKE, GERMISTON
StatCom: Henk Henn (082 568 1829 Fuel sponsor: Engen Craft: South Star – 10m deep-sea rescue craft, Hunters Gold Rescuer – 5.5m RIB, Lomar Rescuer – 4m RIB Needs: Dehumidifier, waterproof binoculars
StatCom: Craft: Needs:
STN 18 • MELKBOSSTRAND StatCom: Rhine Barnes (082 990 5958 Craft: Spirit of the Vines – 5.5m RIB, Men’s Health Rescuer – 4.2m Zapcat, Discovery Rescue Runner 4 Needs: Two new boatshed doors, microwave oven
STN 19 • RICHARDS BAY StatCom: Fuel sponsor: Craft: Needs:
Dorian Robertson (082 990 5949 Engen Spirit of Richards Bay – 12m deep-sea rescue craft, Spirit of Round Table – 7m RIB, Rotary Ann – 4m RIB Electrical multi-meter, flatscreen TV
STN 20
• SHELLEY BEACH
STN 28A • PORT ST JOHNS StatCom: Craft:
StatCom: Craft: Needs:
StatCom: Craft: Needs:
StatCom: Craft: Needs:
StatCom: Craft: Needs:
Dick Manten (083 626 5128 Harvey’s Fibreglass – 5.5m RIB Headlamps
STN 23 • WILDERNESS StatCom: Fuel sponsor: Craft: Needs:
Hennie Niehaus (082 990 5955 Engen Spirit of Rotary 100 – 5.5m RIB, Serendipity – 4.2m RIB, Die Swart Tobie – 4.2m RIB, Discovery Rescue Runner 1 Extension ladder
STN 24A • LAMBERT’S BAY StatCom: Craft:
Ron Selley (082 922 4334 Private vessels are used for rescues
STN 25 • HARTBEESPOORT DAM StatCom: Fuel sponsor: Craft: Needs:
André Kachelhoffer (082 990 5961 Shell Afrox Rescuer II – 5.5m RIB, Vodacom Rescuer V – 4.2m RIB Office equipment and medical supplies
STN 26 • KOMMETJIE StatCom: Craft: Needs:
Ian Klopper (082 990 5979 Spirit of Winelands – 5.5m RIB, FNB Wavescapes – 4.7m RIB, Discovery Rescue Runner 7 Hand-held GPS
Enrico Menezies (082 990 5978 Spirit of St Francis – 7.3m RIB, Colorpress Too – 4.2m RIB LED spotlight, set of 17” clever props
STN 32 • PORT EDWARD
STN 21 • ST FRANCIS BAY
STN 22 • VAAL DAM
Reinhard Geldenhuys (082 990 5952 Vodacom Rescuer VII – 8.5m RIB, I&J Rescuer II – 4.7 RIB Water-extrication pump, marine and land-use binoculars
STN 31 • STILL BAY
StatCom: Craft: Needs:
Marc May (082 990 5969 Spirit of St Francis II – 8.5m RIB, Eikos Rescuer I – 5.5m RIB Waterproof binoculars
John Costello (082 550 5430 Freemason’s Way – 5.5m RIB
STN 30 • AGULHAS
StatCom: Mark Harlen (082 990 5950 Fuel sponsor: Caltex Craft: Caltex Endeavour – 7.3m RIB, Caltex Challenger II – 5.5m RIB, Caltex Discovery – 3.8m RIB, Discovery Rescue Runner 8 Needs: Fold-up tables, plastic chairs
StatCom: Craft: Needs:
Graham Hartlett (082 441 6989 Vodacom Rescuer VI – 4.7m RIB Data projector for training
Mick Banks (076 617 5002 Wild Coast Sun Rescuer – 7.3m RIB, Discovery Rescue Runner 6 Toolkit, floating stretcher, ropes
STN 33 • WITSAND Attie Gunter (082 990 5957 Queenie Paine – 5.5m RIB, Falcon Rescuer – 4.5m RIB, Discovery Rescue Runner 9 Hot-water geyser, radio antennae, camera
STN 34 • YZERFONTEIN StatCom: Craft: Needs:
c/o Darius van Niekerk (082 990 5974 Rotary Onwards – 7.3m RIB, Spirit of Iffley – 4.2m RIB Cupboards, shelving
STN 35A StatCom:
STN 36 StatCom: Craft: Needs:
STN 37 StatCom: Craft: Needs:
• WAVECREST, WILD COAST (083 306 3037/047 498 0042
Conrad Winterbach
• OYSTER BAY Mark Mans Pierre – 4.2m RIB, jet ski Waterproof binoculars
(083 653 6387
• JEFFREYS BAY Rieghard Janse van Rensburg (071 896 6831 Jet ski Waterproof binoculars
GENERAL NEEDS Three survival suits for the helicopter team at R4 000 each
ASRU (Air Sea Rescue Unit) (083 677 7946
StatCom:
André Beuster
Needs:
Dry suits, two Tristar harnesses
FOR GENERAL INFORMATION, PLEASE CALL NSRI’S HEAD OFFICE IN CAPE TOWN ON (021) 434-4011.
MELKBOS
A FUN DAY FOR ALL When the Koeberg Nature Reserve celebrated its 10th anniversary, Koeberg Power Station wanted to organise a special day where members of the public could come out in full force and explore the reserve. Station 18 (Melkbos) was asked to assist with managing the day’s events. It was such a success that seven years later, Station 18 continues to host the annual event much to the delight of 4x4 and quad-bike enthusiasts. It’s win-win for all concerned – the event is a great fundraiser for Sea Rescue, and Koeberg can rely on the watchful eye and organising skills of Station 18 crew. Most importantly, it’s also the only day where groups are allowed into the reserve to tour on quad bikes and with 4x4s. Station 18 StatCom Rhine Barnes explains, ‘The focus is on family, adventure and fun. But it does take some planning,’ he smiles. ‘We’ve been fortunate that for the last three years the Land Cruiser Club of South Africa has assisted us with the management of the 4x4s. ‘Their expertise and experience has drawn many novice 4x4 drivers to take on some of the more challenging bits of the route in the knowledge that they will be guided and assisted to get the best out of their vehicles. We’ve had such good feedback with this!’ There are plenty of activities to keep the kids happy and entertained, like mini-quad bikes, jumping castles and, in recent years, they’ve included live bands, a talent competition and a fashion show. ‘It’s our way of giving back to all those
40 SEA RESCUE • WINTER 2011
who support us on the day. People can also hike or mountain bike around the reserve,’ Rhine adds. The local Wimpy has been an avid supporter of the event, supplying burgers, rolls and coffee. Each year they donate their entire profit to the station. With an event that requires so much planning, it makes sense that numbers are limited – 150 4x4 vehicles and 30 quad bikes can be accommodated. A tour of the reserve takes four hours, and there are 15 vehicles in a group. Each group leaves at 30-minute intervals and the last group makes it back just before nightfall. There is also the issue of the environment, and Eskom has a responsibility to ensure that the vehicles and quads do not damage the environment. ‘The NSRI Adventure Day raised just short of R60 000 last year,’ explains Rhine. ‘We’re very fortunate to have many wonderful organisations who, each year, sponsor prizes ranging from dinners and wine gift packs to T-shirts and much more. Often we run out of reasons to give away prizes,’ Rhine adds with a smile. SR This year the event takes place on 1 October, and bookings open on 1 August on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information or to book, contact Brenulda Hill on (021) 550-4444/5. We’re also looking for a title sponsor for the event, so please contact us if you’re interested.
WORDS: WENDY MARITZ
THE STATION 18 (MELKBOS) ADVENTURE DAY IS AN NSRI INSTITUTION. HELD AT THE KOEBERG NATURE RESERVE ON THE WEST COAST, IT GIVES ADVENTURE SEEKERS THE CHANCE TO GET ON THEIR 4X4S OR QUAD BIKES AND TAKE A DRIVE ON THE WILD SIDE
I AM CREATIVE FREEDOM
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