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Last month saw everyone across Auckland back into level 3 lockdown and Coastguard units across the region only responding to callouts, rather than spending any time on the water training.
On February 20 and 21, the crew of Hibiscus Rescue was among the group of Coastguard rescue vessels that provided support on each of the Prada Cup race days.
For each race session, Coastguard had three vessels located around the course, available to provide assistance, with two of these also having a St John medic on board.
We have also been hosting Coastguard volunteers from all around the country on race days where they have had the opportunity to be on our rescue vessels to get a close look at the race boats and experience the event.
With so many boats on the water to watch the racing, it can certainly get busy around the racecourse, particularly at the end of the day when the stream of boats heading back into Auckland looks like a busy day on the southern motorway. There is a 5-knot speed restriction in place for these busy times and generally it has been well adhered to with only a few exceptions that the Harbourmaster dealt with.
On the race days that we have been involved with, the unit has dealt with the usual range of breakdowns, jump-starts and tows home. The first day of providing support to the racing saw the crew from Hibiscus attending a vessel where one of the passengers on board was feeling unwell and required an urgent transfer back into Auckland to a waiting ambulance for transfer to hospital.
On another occasion, as racing had just finished, the radio traffic suddenly increased with two urgent calls going out, one for a vessel taking on water while trying to lift its anchor and a report of a vessel that had nobody on board anchored amongst the boats of people watching the racing. Hibiscus attended to the unmanned boat while another unit responded to the one taking on water. As we found the unmanned boat, the owner was just returning to his boat where he explained that he had jumped on a friend’s larger, more comfortable and probably better supplied boat to watch the racing! The vessel that was taking on water had four people on board and was not so lucky. By the time the rescue vessel arrived, their boat had been swamped by some large waves, flipped over and they all ended up in the water. Luckily, another vessel close by picked them all up safe and well.
