It was a busy Thursday night for Coastguard volunteers in Northland, with three calls for help in an hour.

Around 8.15pm, Coastguard Houhora volunteers were called out to rescue two people who had scrambled onto rocks at Grenville Point, Rangaunu Bay after their tinny capsized. Both people, who were wearing wetsuits and life jackets, were safely retrieved and returned to land along with their tinny by the four crew on board Houhora Rescue.

Only 10 minutes later, Coastguard Bay of Islands was called into action when a call for help came from a skipper on board a 3-metre vessel in the Rawhiti channel that had a hole in the transom and was filling with water. Fortunately, the skipper was able to beach the vessel at Roberton Island where volunteers on board Bay Rescue II came to their aid, pumping the water out and towing the vessel to Windsor Landing.

Not long after 9pm, Coastguard radio operators received an urgent call for help from a 6.4 metre vessel with two people on board that had struck rocks off the Hen and Chicken Islands in Bream Bay and was filling with water. Six volunteers on board Coastguard Whangarei's Circa Rescue set out to the location, arriving at 10.09pm. A fishing trawler who heard the call for help was already on the scene with engineers helping to pump out water from the stricken vessel. The volunteers from Coastguard Whangarei treated one person for sore ribs before getting them and their vessel safely back to Marsden Cove Marina where they were met by a St John Ambulance and taken to Whangarei Base Hospital.

Amazing work from all volunteers across our Northland units!

For more information, contact:
Julia James
Coastguard New Zealand Communications Manager
[email protected]