On Friday night January 25 the Sea Rescue night radio operator Graham Best received a call from the Police advising that a female was seen entering the river near the shop at Dunbogan at approximately 8.30pm. The Police requested that a search of the river in the area be instigated, the rescue crew of Neville McIntyre and Gordon Grey were called and took "Rescue 2" to assist. A search in conjunction with the SES was conducted in the appropriate area. The rescue boat returned to base when the search was called off at 2am. The following morning at 9am the search was resumed with Athol Shoesmith in control of "Rescue 2." The missing female was located alive and well on land on Saturday afternoon and the search was concluded. "Rescue 2" at that time was still searching at sea under the control of Geoff Moss and John Sinclair, the boat then returned to base, approximately 100 litres of fuel was used in this incident.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
On Sunday, January 27 at 2.30pm the day base radio operator Ron Shewring received a relayed phone message from a runabout in trouble in very rough conditions and was located 6 nautical miles east of Diamond Head. The boat "G-Dees" with two persons on board had engine trouble, their radio was not functioning correctly and contact was maintained by mobile phone. The rescue crew of Athol Shoesmith and Ken Pate were called to "Rescue 2" to assist. On reaching the bar the very experienced crew were doubtful as to whether it was safe to cross. After watching the sea pattern for some time, the skipper eventually crossed the bar and proceeded to the "G Dees." The boat was located by using a weak radio signal (able to be seen on the Sea Rescue boats radio directional finder) and the mobile phone. Because of the sea conditions, the rescue boat crew decided it was too dangerous to try to cross the Laurieton bar with a boat in tow, so it was towed to Crowdy Head Harbour.
The rescue crew left the "G Dees" with one of it's connections at Crowdy and brought the other person back in "Rescue 2" to enable him to take the car and trailer back to Crowdy and bring the boat back to Laurieton where it had left from that morning for a days fishing. The incident concluded at 5.30pm and 100 litres of fuel was used, a donation of $100 was given by the connections of the "G Dees."
At 8.20am on Thursday, February 7 the sea rescue day base "Laurieton Shell" received a Police message, of a small yacht capsided near the Laurieton bar with a person in the water. The rescue crew of Neville McIntyre and Ken Pate were alerted and accompanied by Peter Versluis (Ambulance Officer) attended. The yacht had righted itself and the skipper was back on board and proceeding back to it's mooring, the rescue boat returned to base at 9am.
On Monday, February 18 at 6pm a message from the Police was received by the day base "Laurieton Shell" advising of a person in difficulties 150 metres out from the Surf Club on North Haven beach. The rescue crew of John Sinclair and Tom Johnson were called and accompanied by George Tedds (President of Sea Rescue) and Peter Versluis took "Rescue 2" at 6.10pm to assist. A person was located, and with the assistance of two surf club members, Dave Hannaford and Heath Balkin who had just arrived in the surf club inflatable boat, the person was lifted aboard the sea rescue boat. The person, a male was deceased. The rescue boat then proceeded back to the Rescue Shed where all necessary formalities were attended to by the Police Officer Ross Bate.
At 6.30pm on Saturday, February 23 the night radio operator Ron Shewring after a request from the Police called the rescue crew of Brian Hartcher and Ken Pate to take "Rescue 2" to Lake Cathie area as an object had been seen in the area resembling a person. After an unsuccessful search the boat returned to base at 8.30pm due to bad visibility.
On Thursday, February 28 at 9.30am the rescue crew of Neville McIntyre and John Sinclair were alerted by day base, after a Police request for the "Rescue 2" to proceed to Bonny Hills (Rainbow Beach) to assist a swimmer in difficulty. After arriving in the area the rescue crew were advised by radio that the swimmer had made it safely back to shore, the rescue boat returned to base arriving back at 11.30am.
In the interest of safety the Sea Rescue requests all boat proceeding to sea to call the 24 hour base VMR Laurieton on channel 27.88 MHZ or VHF 16 giving their details and estimated time of return, also please log off when back in the Camden Haven.
A thankyou to Sea Rescue members who gave their time to sell raffle tickets to raise $1,325 for the Ambulance Fund. The winner drawn by Peter Versluis was won by Mr R Luck of Lakewood Village, and a special thank you to the Community for their great support.
