Marine Rescue NSW saved a female paddler who was left stranded in Budgewoi Lake for half an hour on February 16.
First located by the Westpac Rescue chopper, TL 20 skipper Ian Hodge said the woman was pulled from the water just after 8pm.
“She was conscious and responsive when we got her out of the water,” Hodge said.
“We got her onboard and wrapped her up in a space blanket to try and bring up her body temperature; she’d been in the water for a while.
“Her kayak had taken on a lot of water.
“We retrieved it and took her to the Peel St jetty near our Toukley base.”
Hodge said it took less than 10 minutes from retrieving the woman for the Marine Rescue crew to hand her over to waiting NSW Ambulance paramedics who assessed her on scene.
NSW Ambulance said the woman didn’t require treatment in hospital.
Marine Rescue Tuggerah Lakes Unit Commander Bob Sutton said TL 20 was en-route to assist a grounded vessel on Lake Munmorah when the call came to help the kayaker.
“The crew of Ian Hodge, Peter Fischer, Steve Noakes and our Radio Operator Don Hobbs did a great job,” Sutton said.
“They had to triage the whole thing by which job was more important.
“A person in the water is always more important but once they had rescued the kayaker and got her to paramedics they immediately went to assist the grounded vessel.”
Sutton said kayakers can get caught out on inland waters.
“When it’s calm it’s beautiful but the wind changed last night and people can get into trouble,” he said on February 17.
“Because of the shallow nature of the lakes, they blow up.”
The rescue was the second involving a kayaker after a fisherman was collected by Marine Rescue after getting into trouble on Tuggerah Lake on Sunday, February 12.
Source:
Media release, Feb 17
Marine Rescue NSW