No urgent callouts and five general callouts all requiring a tow back to Whitianga. One callout was to a vessel outside the 12nm limit which requires a Maritime NZ exemption, which was given and a senior crew was sent. Conditions were good and they returned to base some seven and a half hours later. In this instance our Incident Management Team were stood up and were in contact with Police, Maritime NZ and Coastguard National Operations Center (CNOC) during the operation. Thank you to the crew who went on the callout.
Other actions whilst not assists covered one skipper assessment – Congratulations to Graeme Thomas who now has become a Coastguard Skipper, a flare sighting, finding an EPIRB adrift that was unregistered, a lone kayaker was located draped over his kayak in the early morning and brought back to shore for handover to St. Johns and then taken to hospital.
Our cadets are nearing the end of their cadetship program. They will now be prepping for their nighttime transit of Great Mercury Island.
Training continues with four new radio operators undertaking both theory and hands on training including MAYDAY/PANPAN calls. Nearly all the Radio operators have completed their first aid training.
At our last full training evening we had the patient from a medical assist from earlier in the year debriefing the incident. It was an excellent opportunity for our volunteers (both wet crew and radio operators) to hear the customers’ view and how our actions assist people.
I would like to expand on two points briefly mentioned above.
Trip reports. A trip report can be done with anyone however with a Coastguard hat on it is best if competed with Coastguard. We look for details such as vessel, number of people, where you are going and the estimated time of return. It is the beginning of any Search and Rescue operation. If we do not know you are out there we may not know if any assistance is required.
EPIRBS/ PLB’s. Emergency beacons are an excellent tool and certainly a life saver. However, it is best if they are registered as that way Rescue Co-ordination Centre will know who the beacon belongs to and have the extra contact details which will allow for the best type of response.
Our boat build is progressing with the hull coming off the jig next week. I will include a photo of the build in the next report.
Safe Boating.
Stuart Brown,
Coastguard Whitianga President
