Jerome Simonis, NSRI Knysna station commander, said: At 08h29, Wednesday, 8 September, NSRI Knysna duty crew were activated following eye-witness reports of a man on a sea kayak appearing to be in difficulty on Knysna Lagoon and drifting towards the Knysna Heads.
Our duty crew responded to our sea rescue station and the sea rescue craft Jaytee IV and Katharine were launched.
While responding we received a phone call from the casualty requesting assistance.
We reached the local 54 year old man on his sea kayak as he was drifting out to sea through the Knysna Heads.
He was taken onboard our sea rescue craft with his sea kayak and he informed us that he had lost his paddle and unable to navigate he was swept out towards the sea through the Knysna Heads.
We briefly searched for his paddle but it has not been found.
He was not injured and once we had him safely ashore he required no further assistance.
NSRI commend the eye-witnesses who raised the alarm.
NSRI are appealing to everyone launching any kind of craft to go to sea to download and use the free NSRI RSA SafeTrx smart phone application.
