A day at the helm with the NSRI
Saving lives is their job, despite the obvious dangers
BOUNCING around inside a four-metre rubber duck, swallowing sea water and earning a tan that is one step away from sunburn, is not what many would consider an ideal way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
But for hundreds of National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) volunteers around the country, it’s a daily reality.
When seafarers make for shore as bad weather sets in, the NSRI is saddling up and heading out to fulfil their primary function – to safeguard lives.
This journalist was invited to spend a day with the NSRI in Richards Bay, who were playing host to four KZN and the Germiston and Witbank stations.
For the sea rescue members, it was a weekend of training and camaraderie, while for me it was simply an opportunity to see them at work first-hand as they went about a simulated training exercise that would expose their members to a scenario that would stretch the limits of their physical capabilities and mental prowess.
The exercise, which was designed to include rescue resources operated by the port authority, was a double-headed emergency – to rescue crew from a sinking yacht who had been cast adrift on life rafts, and also to recover the yacht which was ‘sinking’ fast.
Richard Schouten of IPSS Medical Rescue supervised the medical team and also operated as the safety officer for the exercise.
Sadly, port authorities pulled their resources from the exercise at the 11th hour, leaving it solely a NSRI operation.
And that is how I found himself on one of Richards Bay’s Station 19’s smaller vessels, smacking into the one metre swell on our way to the ‘stranded’ yacht and survivors just off South Pier.
Camera in hand, I watched the highly trained volunteers go about the work of rescuing stranded sailors – a sight not often seen by civilians as rescues such as this usually take place in extremely bad conditions while we are curled up in front of the TV.
The exercise was hailed a success after all the survivors were brought safely back to shore to waiting ambulances who responded magnificently, not being aware it was a simulated incident.
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