Strong winds bring busy day

Central Coast Marine Rescue had a busy day on the water on Friday, December 28, with a number of people in the Peninsula area needing assistance.

Conditions changed around midday and by 3pm, with wind exceeding 40 knots, calls for assistance were being received in the radio room of Marine Rescue Central Coast.

Skipper Brendon Weston and Richard Manning were soon on the water aboard rescue vessel Central Coast 20.

Central Coast 20 was sent to the Rip Bridge where they arrived at 4:40pm after attending to a number of rescues in the Gosford area.

Their task was to assist a nine metre motor cruiser with seven people on board.

The motor on the vessel had failed and the rescue crew towed the vessel to its mooring at Ettalong.

Two May Day calls were received by the radio room, one around 2:30pm and the next at 4:30pm, both around the bar at Little Box Head, and both involving capsized vessels.

Lifeguards in a RIB assisted the people in the water from the first vessel, a sailing boat.

The Westpac helicopter assisted the nine people (three adults and six children) from the second capsized motor vessel.

Central Coast 20 attended a 12 metre sailing catamaran with five people on board at 5pm, which was aground at Orange Grove in the Blackwall Channel.

The vessel was safe despite being aground and it was determined that it could not be assisted until the conditions improved and the tide was higher.

The vessel was able to motor off on the high tide on Saturday morning.

The radio room directed Central Coast 20 to Hardys Bay at 6pm to assist a nine-metre cruiser aground near the south cardinal mark.

The owner used his dinghy to put his children ashore, and then he and his wife used their anchor windlass together with the tow from the rescue boat to move the stranded vessel into deeper water where they were able to restart its engine.

Central Coast 20 escorted the cruiser back to its mooring in Caroline Bay.

The volunteers from boat crew and radio room finished the day at around 8pm.

Media Release, 29 Dec 2012

Ron Cole, Marine Rescue Central Coast