On Saturday 1 May at 19h05 NSRI Lamberts Bay and NSRI Mykonos were alerted to an overdue 26 foot snoek fishing boat, Snoekie, reported overdue from fishing and last seen approximately 5 nautical miles off-shore, 15 nautical miles North of Lamberts Bay at 14h30 in the afternoon with 11 crew on-board.
Ron Selley, NSRI Lamberts Bay station commander, said local snoek fisherman launched 4 boats to begin a search and the Transnet National Ports Authority were informed.
Darius van Niekerk, NSRI Mykonos station commander, said the Maritime Radio Services broadcast an all ships alert on the marine emergency radio frequency and a number of vessels, at sea at the time in the area, including two deck boats and other private boats, volunteered to assist in the search.
Maritime Radio Services continued intermittently to try to raise the boat on marine radio frequencies.
A South African Air Force (SAAF) 35 Squadron fixed wing Dakota aircraft was placed on alert to be launched at first light if no sign of the overdue fishermen and their boat were found during the night.
NSRI Mykonos prepared to launch their rescue craft Spirit of Freemasonry.
At approximately 22h45 communications were established with the missing boat and the deck boat Sout Rivier was dispatched to the coordinates and at approximately 05h08 the casualty boat was located and taken under tow by Sout Rivier.
The casualty boat was found 40 nautical miles West of Lamberts Bay and the crew onboard reported that they had run out of fuel in the afternoon. In total they had drifted some 55 nautical miles from their original position.
A crewman has told the NSRI that they fired off a host of red distress flares while they drifted but it can be confirmed that none of the red distress flares were spotted.
Once safely ashore the crew have been reunited with their families.
TABLE BAY:
On Saturday 1 May at 17h12 NSRI Table Bay were activated following a request for urgent assistance from the owner of the 54 foot yacht Ex Africa reporting that they were experiencing engine failure and taking some water 4 nautical miles North of Robben Island with 6 crew onboard, 5 males and a female.
The yacht, reportedly en-route to Europe, were due to stop at Saldanha Bay after leaving the Port of Table Bay earlier in the day.
Pat van Eyssen, NSRI Table Bay station commander, said the NSRI Table Bay duty crew launched the NSRI rescue craft Spirit of Vodacom and on arrival on-scene a towline was rigged in 2 to 2.5 metre swells and the casualty yacht was towed safely into the Port of Table Bay where no further assistance was required.
