Bay Harbour: November 21, 2018

Wednesday November 21 2018
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
BAY HARBOUR
PAGE 19
Sumner Lifeboat
Experiencing a night-time rescue
Sumner Lifeboat crew
trainee Howard Nicholls
shares his experience of
taking part in a recent
search and rescue exercise
A RADIO message sent back
to base on a recent search and
rescue exercise called for an
immediate response.
The message: SAREX,
SAREX, the casualty has been
located on rocks at Harris Bay,
unresponsive and requiring
immediate evacuation.
There was no time to waste.
The Sumner Lifeboat crew
must be prepared to deal with
any scenario.
This exercise presented quite a
few challenges – the ‘rescue’ was
happening at night in a remote
bay with no light.
The difficulties were
compounded by a 1-2m swell
onto the rocks, and kelp in the
area that might foul the rescue
vessels.
Two vessels were tasked to the
scene: Blue Arrow Rescue, the
big twin-engine, 12.45m rescue
boat, and Southern Trust Rescue,
a powerful, two-person jet ski
SAVIOUR: The Southern Trust Rescue jet ski, a powerful two-person jet ski fitted with a rescue
sled.
fitted with a rescue sled.
Blue Arrow Rescue’s big
spotlights scanned the shoreline
and located the casualty, then
the Southern Trust Rescue jet ski
dropped a crew member onto the
rocks to attend the casualty and
assess the situation.
The casualty (a manikin) was
transferred from the rocks to
Blue Arrow Rescue via the jet
ski. Then a new challenge – the
casualty had ‘stopped breathing’.
Several crew members
performed CPR and had to
keep it going all the way back to
Sumner Lifeboat Station.
While the action was
happening on the water, the onshore
team had been planning
how to get the casualty off the
boat and into the care of medical
staff.
Blue Arrow Rescue came
straight onto the boat trolley and
up the ramp, where shoreside
and on-board crew worked
together to get the casualty to the
medics.
Mission accomplished.
This was followed by a debrief
on what went well and what the
areas to improve were, a quick
beer, then off home ready for
work the next morning – and
better prepared for a real nighttime
call-out.
The costs of owning and
maintaining three modern
rescue craft, and of training
and equipping about 26 crew
members, are growing yearly.
Very little funding is provided
by the Government, so the
Sumner Lifeboat Institution
needs your help – financial or ‘in
kind’ – to enable it to continue
to bring family members home
safely to their loved ones.
•Find out more at www.
sumnerlifeboat.org.nz
or write to secretary@
sumnerlifeboat.org.nz or PO
Box 17 – 515 Sumner 8081
Plan to grow farmers’ market
• By Louis Day
DIAMOND HARBOUR held its
first farmers’ market in years at
the weekend.
Edible bouquets of flowers,
beeswax wraps and organic
shortbread among other arts
and crafts were all on offer at the
Dark Star Café.
Event organiser Donna
Richardson said there were five
stalls in the first market which is
expected to grow rapidly over the
coming weeks.
“We are thinking it could be
like a combination of shabby
chic, crafts, arts and hopefully
more produce over the summer.
It hasn’t really got that much
produce yet so it’s more of a
market than a farmers’ market at
the moment.”
Vendors are not charged to sell
their goods at the event.
“The more people we have the
merrier it is. It would be great to
have something like Lyttelton has
because people that can’t make
the Saturday Lyttelton market
could come to ours.”
Mrs Richardson said the
market was the perfect platform
for people in the community to
showcase some of their talents.
“Sometimes you know
someone but you have no idea
what they are capable of. On
Sunday, we learnt that there
were a lot of creative people here
and I think there are a lot more
creative people in the area.”
Mrs Richardson said the
market would work in tandem
with Sprig next month.
“From the second week of
December we have Sprig starting
at 1pm and the market ending
at midday. People could grab
something to eat at the market
and then go and listen to some of
the music in the park.”
•The market is on Sunday,
9am-noon.
SOMETHING DIFFERENT:
Edible flowers were sold at
the Diamond Harbour farmers’
market at the weekend.
YOUR BEST MATE
OUT ON THE WATER.
Make sure you have your other best mate
to get him home again safely.
ONLY
$
115 *
*T&CS APPLY
Get your Coastguard membership today
New Zealand wide coverage You’re covered on any vessel
Includes family members
Exclusive membership benefits
Visit boatiesbestmate.nz or phone 0800 BOATIE