All's well after a long day

After keeping an eye on the progress of Kawau Rescue from the 1913 callout Saturday night, and having a brief conversation with Paul that we'd cover until the Duty crew had had a sleep, I was pleased to see them back in the berth around 0130am Sunday. Great.

However, when the pager went off again at 0238, for an Urgent callout - on a foul night, I was a little less pleased.

The backup crew quickly assembled and Al had the boat deflating as we arrived .....in the pouring rain. (Thanks Al)

The tasking was a Mayday / Distress call to a 16m launch in Leigh Harbour / Omaha Cove, that was reported as having hit rocks and had a stuck anchor, with 2 people on board.

Heading into the North Channel in a gale force Easterly wasn't much fun, but as it was pitch dark, the waves aren't as daunting when you can't see them! The drips coming in from the roof "air vents" are just as wet, however.

It took us about an hour to plug around to Leigh. The launch was under power and sitting stern on to the sea, as the anchor was stuck and apparently the winch also wasn't working. They could neither let out more chain nor bring it in.

As the boat was very close to rocks and large swells were tossing it around, our options to help seemed very limited. As we were assessing whether we could try to snag the anchor chain and cut it, the launch again was thrown up onto the rocks and spun around.

Police and Fire were on scene at the wharf, on the other side of the Harbour, so getting the 2 people off via the rocks seemed a safer option - there wasn't anything we could do for the boat.

Leigh Fire crew gathered and accessed the area via Mt Pleasant Rd. Using their cliff rescue gear, they managed to board the boat and extract both people. We held station in case we were needed, with the back deck crew ready to hurl life rings etc if anyone had gone in the water, but the Fire team had everything in hand.

A huge relief.

The return trip to Sandspit was in daylight, 5 hours after departing, and some pretty grumpy conditions, so hopefully boaties will stay put in a safe anchorage until the weather and sea conditions improve.

It was very sad to see this boat up on the rocks, especially with a rising tide, but getting everyone off safely was the priority, as was keeping our crew safe.

Thanks to the crew of Andrew W, Dave, Tim and Luke G, with Luke probably not even getting into bed from the previous callout.

Awesome concentration from Andrew W on helm, holding station in a tricky spot, made a little more complicated by numerous mooring buoys where we needed to be and a tight spot to try to sit.

Stay safe out there.