The man was located by Kawau Rescue at about 5pm, hypothermic, disorientated and floating amongst debris from his vessel. Photo / Coastguard Volunteers onboard Kawau Rescue
A Coastguard volunteer has told of the dramatic moment she and other crew rescued a hypothermic man who was clinging to a sinking kayak in rough seas off Great Barrier Island.
Kawau Rescue was alerted after the man made a panicked call to his wife from his stricken launch, then abandoned it for the kayak.
She phoned the Coastguard.
On board the rescue vessel which happened to be out on a training mission were skipper Thelma Wilson and three other volunteers.
They started to search for the boatie, but their efforts were hindered by heavy conditions and 20- to 30-knot southwesterly winds.
When the man's large plywood launch was found about 5pm on Sunday, it was already mostly submerged, but the rescuers spotted what was left of it from a kilometre away.
"As we got part-way over we saw something that didn't look right, which was the bow of his boat there was probably a metre at most of the bow sticking up," Ms Wilson said.
After a quick look around, the Kawau Rescue crew could see the man was no longer with his launch.
"[We] started searching around that area and fortunately quite quickly saw a paddle raised up in the air," she said.
The man, wearing a life jacket, was found clinging to a swamped kayak about 200m from his vessel. But he wasn't raising the paddle to catch their attention. In fact, doing that was just a stroke of luck.
"He was clutching an assortment of gear, he had a swamped kayak that was probably giving him some buoyancy, the paddle, and he had a [life jacket] on and was holding a box of flares and his Epirb [emergency beacon]. He wasn't actually trying to signal us; it was probably just a bit of a fluke that he had his paddle up in the air, because he couldn't actually remember doing it.
"We were very relieved to see him, because there were a lot of white caps out there. It would've been a huge area to search for a target that small."
It quickly became obvious the man was hypothermic and disoriented.
"He was really cold and not too able to move by himself. As he warmed up we got a bit more out of him.
"My understanding is that ... the wet exhaust on his boat either the hose burst or the fitting might have given way. Basically he got a lot of water into the hull of his boat pretty quickly. He got one quick phone call away and he was in the water pretty much straight after that."
A call for medical support was made and the Westpac rescue helicopter flew from Auckland. A paramedic was winched onto the rescue vessel and after an assessment, the man was cleared to be taken to Sandspit by Kawau Rescue, in a stable condition.
Had the crew found him only 15 or 20 minutes later, however, "I don't think it would have ended so well", Ms Wilson said.
During the ride back to the wharf, there was "lot of reflection" as the man discussed his partner and young children.
"It was actually really nice to bring him back to his family."
Coastguard duty officer Mark Leever said the incident was "an example of how the unexpected can happen so quickly out on the water".
"The man was prepared in that he was wearing his life jacket and had recently purchased flares and an Epirb from Trade Me, as we understand it, the previous week."
It was a reminder of the importance of carrying appropriate forms of communication, Mr Leever said.
"The VHF radio continues to be number one for us as far as communication goes because if we can't hear the person in trouble, it makes an efficient search-and-rescue effort more difficult.
"The area between Great Barrier Island and Sandspit is vast and it's just fortunate that coastguard volunteers located him when they did."
Mr Leever said that while the man had deployed his Epirb, which had alerted the Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Wellington, the beacon was registered to its previous owner, with no GPS fitted, and this required additional time for another pass of the satellite to provide a location.
• Take time before you head out on the water to check the condition of your boat (replace old fuel, service your engine, check your batteries) and prep it with key safety gear (communications, lifejackets, flares, Epirb).
• Life jackets- take them and wear them. Coastguard's Old4New Lifejacket Upgrade is a great way to get sorted for summer by trading in your old life vests for new fit-for-purpose quality life jackets.
• Visit coastguard.org.nz You can jump onto the Coastguard App for the latest marine weather and up-to-the minute wind information. If in doubt, don't go out.
• Take two forms of waterproof communication (VHF marine radio is the best primary means, together with an Epirb, flares and a cellphone in a water proof bag.
Source: Coastguard
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