NSRI crews in Table Bay and Kleinmond responded to three separate weekend emergencies, rescuing paddle boarders, two young cousins and a father and son swept into danger by wind and rip currents. Two paddle boarders, two young cousins and a Cape Town father and son were rescued in three separate incidents as strong winds and rip currents triggered a busy weekend for NSRI crews across the province. Just before 12:53pm on Saturday, NSRI Table Bay, NSRI Bakoven and the City’s water-rescue network launched after multiple eyewitnesses reported two people struggling on a stand-up paddle board off Bakoven.
Roxy Taylor, NSRI Table Bay coxswain, said the rescue craft Spirit of Day reached a local couple “a nautical mile offshore of Bakoven, caught in the 25 to 30-knot south-easterly winds”. The pair, an adult man and woman, were taken aboard and their board was recovered. They were dropped at Camps Bay Beach unharmed.
Taylor commended the public: “The eyewitnesses are commended for raising the alarm.” On Sunday at 9:42am, NSRI Kleinmond was activated to Kleinmond Lagoon after Overstrand Law Enforcement reported two girls, aged 10 and 11, needing help following a non-fatal drowning. Schalk Boonzaaier, NSRI Kleinmond station commander, said the cousins — one from De Doorns and one from Touws River — had been walking through shallow water with their grandmother when one stepped into a hidden hole. The second jumped in to help, and both showed non-fatal drowning symptoms.
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