Five people rescued from the rocks in darkness.

At 2107 hours last night a distress call was heard by Coastguard’s Operation Centre on marine VHF Radio from a vessel that had hit rocks near The Noises in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf.

The Queen Elizabeth Two who was leaving port offered assistance following Coastguard’s distress relay but Coastguard volunteers were quickly underway responding from Browns Bay on- board North Shore Rescue and from Mechanics Bay on board Lion Foundation Rescue arriving on scene within twenty minutes. Upon arrival it was clear that the vessel, a 5.5m runabout had hit the rocks and was now high and dry.

North Shore Rescue deployed two volunteers onto the rocks to assess the situation, the four adults were shaken but fine and the child anxious. They were removed from the rock to the safety of the larger Coastguard vessel Lion Foundation Rescue.

Following the assessment of the vessel and discussion with its skipper it was determined to have potential structural damage but had no been holed. With this the vessel was floated off with the incoming time and taken undertow by Lion Foundation Rescue to Half Moon Bay with the small amount of water that was coming in made manageable by Coastguard volunteers. The five arrived safely at Half Moon Bay just shortly before 0100 hours this morning thanks to the effort of the Coastguard Volunteers invovled.

“It was a fantastic response by the volunteers who quickly got the situation under control. The skipper had lifejackets for everyone and way able to make the distress call to get help, this makes a huge difference to our ability to respond and get the positive outcome after what was no doubt a frightening experience for those on board the runabout.” says Ray Burge, Coastguard Operations Manager.

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