On  Thursday, 23 July 2015 at 15:45 National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) Hermanus launched the 10 metre deep Sea Rescue boat, South Star after a member of the public reported that a vessel between De Kelders and Gansbaai seemed to be in difficulty.

Deon Langenhoven, NSRI Hermanus station commander, said the following regarding the incident: “We launched South Star as a precaution because the report that we received suggested that a small vessel was having difficulty making its way to Gansbaai harbour.

Because of the pending darkness we launched and made our way across the bay in a strong North Westerly wind and swell of 4 to 5 metres.

We quickly located the vessel, which turned out to be the Mary Ann, a 12 metre long liner. She had her lines down and was in no difficulty, but because of the rough seas it was easy to see why the person who reported the incident thought that she was in difficulty.

After confirming that the 10 crew onboard Mary Ann were safe, we returned to base at 19:25 confident that this was a False Alarm with good intentions.” He further mentioned that the NSRI would much rather people call them sooner rather than later if they suspect that someone is in difficulty so that they can assess the situation.

Andrew Ingram (NSRI)

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