Rescue at sea

Saturday 7th August. The morning started with Lydia teaching Manuel and Heidi how to dive with the Huka system, while Andrew stayed in the dinghy making sure the compressor kept going. After half an hour of diving we headed back to Imagine and Sue.
After a cuppa and biscuits we released the mooring and set off for Blue Pearl Bay. With Lydia at the helm first she set the pace at 7.2 knots. Manuel helmed the second half of the journey, only reaching 5.2 knots. Pretty good for a novice.
We arrived in bay and found we had the bay to ourselves. Possibly because the wind was whistling around the point. The wind died later this evening which made it more comfortable.
Sue had just made us all lunch when we saw a kite surfer come around the point, not doing too well in the high winds. Then he went over. We could hear him shouting out. So Manuel and Andrew quickly lowered the dinghy into the water, while Sue and Lydia got the outboard motor ready to lower onto the dinghy. In minutes Andrew and Lydia reached the surfer in the dinghy. Lydia jumped in the water to help the guy untangle his kite. Andrew hauled the board into the dinghy then towed Lydia, the guy and his kite to Imagine.
Once everyone, the kite and board were onboard Imagine, we quizzed the guy. He and his mate had come from Airlie Beach (28km) in a dinghy with 20knot winds gusting 30 so he could kite surf. They had no lifejackets. No vhf radio, and his mate in the dinghy was nowhere in sight, so we couldn’t contact his mate to say where he was. His mate turned up about 5 minutes later. They piled everything in their dinghy and headed back out into the high winds to go back to Airlie.
After all that Sue, Andrew and Lydia needed a rest. Manuel and Heidi went for a walk finding a track over the hill. Unfortunately they didn’t find the same track when they wanted to return. Four hours later they finally made it back to the beach for Andrew to pick them up. They enjoyed the views of Hayman and Hook Island and the small kangaroos, not so much the snake that slithered out in front of Heidi!
What a boring day!

2 responses on “Rescue at sea

  1. Hazel McDonnell

    Great pictures, how lucky was that guy that you lovely people where there or else he could have been shark shit by now.

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