Coastguard – Making a call on weather

Summer is still elusive, and the high winds and tail ends of cyclones continue to batter Northland, Auckland and the Coromandel. We have been teased with a few days of what summer is, yet no real long periods of fine weather. On that note, there are times where some people will chance it which can be detrimental. The forecast is your friend and, as the saying goes, “if in doubt – don’t go out”.

On Sunday November 29, Hibiscus had an urgent page to launch our Sea Legs vessel – Hibiscus Rescue 2 from Stanmore Bay with reports of a person in the water somewhere between Ōrewa and Army Bay. With the wind blowing constantly at 40 knots and gusting up to 60 knots our skippers need to make a call on our crew’s safety in these conditions. We have operating limits for each of our vessels and this must be considered when deciding to respond to these incidents. We train in heavy weather because of this, but the safety of our crew is paramount. It was decided that the Eagle Helicopter would be dispatched to try and reduce the search area from the air. Visibility was limited due to the weather, but two kayakers were spotted trying to make their way back to shore. Luckily they managed to get back on dry land, however this could have been catastrophic. 

We were delighted that one of the Hibiscus Crew, Michelle Smyth won Unit Support Volunteer of the Year at the annual Coastguard NZ awards (HM October 30). Michelle is our recruitment officer as well as an active deckhand and truly dedicated to our unit. She guides our new recruits and makes sure they feel part of our unit and she also volunteers for off water activities such as selling raffle tickets and community engagements.  We are extremely proud and lucky to have her in our unit.

Hibiscus Rescue 1 is midway through her refit and is in the stages of being put back together.  This is a massive undertaking and, as we all know, there are hidden issues that are encountered along the way. We were hoping to have it back in service by the end of November however we need to ensure that everything is done correctly so it may be delayed a further couple of weeks. Once we get the vessel back, we must re-equip it with all the rescue gear and then run in the new engines. 

The year has been wet and windy so far with limited windows to get out on the water.  Be safe out there and always check the forecast before launching, no matter what your vessel is.