Busy night for Mandurah Marine Rescue volunteers

The volunteers were called out at 9pm when a kite surfer was reported missing by police off Estuary Road in Wannanup.

Police reported the man was forced to drift in the water for a period of time, before he was able to seek refuge on a sandbank.

Marine Rescue Mandurah commander Ian Warman said when the surfers kite deflated he was forced to stand waist deep in water for the night before a boat picked him upon Monday morning.

“The man could see us searching for him and we got close to him but not close enough,” he said.

“If he had been carrying a handheld EPIRB we could’ve got to him immediately.”

Mr Warman said he received a second call at 11pm when four men activated their EPIRB two miles off Falcon.

He said the men aged between 30 to 43 were in the water for an hour when the rescue team found them.

“It was a new boat which they had taken out for a spin,” Mr Warman said.

 “Apparently they were thrown into the water after their vessel was hit by a wave.”

Mr Warman said the men were very cold when they pulled them out and two were taken to Peel Health Campus.

Three boats continued to search for the kite surfer until 1.30am.

The team went back out for an hour at 6am before the search was called off.

“It’s great that we can report happy endings after Sunday night’s searches,” he said.

“However, if the four men found off Falcon had used the Volunteer Marine log-on, log-off service we could’ve got to them a lot quicker and minimised their time in the water.”

Earlier this month the rescue centre launched a media campaign urging boat owners to log on and log off before they left the marina.

By logging on to radio channel 77 boat users are giving the centre a time they leave, where they leave from, where they are going, how many people are on board and when they’re coming back.

After a long night Mr Warman said his team were looking forward to getting some sleep.

“They all did a great job out there,” he said.