Paddler found alive after drifting in sea for over two hours

A 47-year-old Cape Town paddler who was reported missing on Sunday was found alive after drifting in the sea for more than two hours‚ clinging to his paddle board after being swamped by waves.

Apart from hypothermia‚ exhausted and in shock‚ the man is now in a stable condition in hospital.

After a frantic search by sea rescuers from the National Sea Rescue Institute at Table Bay and Bakoven‚ the man‚ who was initially reported to be in difficulty in strong winds about 600 metres offshore of Three Anchor Bay‚ was eventually spotted and rescued by the crew of a private rubber-duck half way between Robben Island and Oudekraal.

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“Stella Maris‚ unaware that a search and rescue operation was underway for a paddler‚ were heading towards Oudekraal at the time when they saw an object floating in the water and approached the object finding the paddler who was half in the water and half out the water‚ with the life-jacket keeping him afloat‚ but barely able to hold onto his paddle board‚ and appearing to be in a bad way and saying please help me‚” said NSRI Table Bay station commander Quentin Botha.

He said sea rescuers rendezvoused with the rubber-duck and took him onboard their sea rescue craft where treatment for exhaustion and severe hypothermia commenced while they brought him to the NSRI Table Bay rescue base.

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“ER24 ambulance services were summoned to the NSRI Table Bay sea rescue station where they continued medical treatment and they have transported the patient to hospital in a stable condition and he will make a full recovery‚” Botha added.

He said the man‚ who was wearing a life-jacket‚ reported losing sight of his friends when he was then knocked off his paddle board. Although managing to get back on‚ waves were then swamping the paddle board and after raising the alarm by cellphone he had put his cellphone into his wet suit‚ not realising he had switched it off. Rescuers were thus unable to get hold of him on his cellphone.

“He drifted for over 2 hours‚ with no flares or any other safety devices onboard‚ before being found by the crew of Stella Maris.”

Botha said that once safely at the sea rescue base and in the care of paramedics it was then reported that he had been paddling with friends who were still unaccounted for.

“A new search was launched and shortly into the search three of his friends were found safe at Three Anchor Bay and one paddler was found by NSRI Bakoven off-shore of Bakoven and NSRI Table Bay took him to the Three Anchor Bay slipway.

“It appears that 5 men had gone paddling from Three Anchor Bay to Robben Island. One man had left the group to go fishing on his own between Bantry Bay and Camps Bay (He is the man who was found safe off-shore of Bakoven). The remaining 4 men‚ while paddling towards Robben Island‚ had lost sight of one of their party (the rescued paddler) but they had pressed on regardless.”