Kayaker braves storm to rescue boatie
Keith Hall knew exactly what he had to do when his wife Janice called him saying she could see a man in trouble in a boat in Manukau Harbour: within five minutes the 64-year-old former geography teacher was fastening the skirt of his kayak.
Hall, a kayaker since childhood, reckons that Friday, January 5, was the worst weather he had ever been out in. Wind gusts of over 100kmh, a king tide, and surging waves made it hard to stay upright in the water.
But not attempting a rescue was not an option: ‘‘I knew I had the kayak, I knew I had the gear, and I knew if it was me out there, I’d be wanting someone to come pretty quick.’’
When he finally reached the stricken dinghy, about 1km from his Mangere Bridge home, he found its 76-year-old owner in the water without a lifejacket.
The man, named Jim, had ventured out to retrieve a pole he had seen snap off the jetty during the storm. Once out on the water, he found himself being swept out to sea.
‘‘By the time got out to him, Jim had given
Hall said.
‘‘At the minimum, I thought I could have held him up and reassured him until someone else came, but we may have got to shore together if he’d hung on to the front of my kayak.’’
The two men waited for the police Eagle rescue helicopter. Police swimmer senior constable Mike Moore leapt into the water and Jim was winched to safety. He was taken to hospital in a moderate condition.
A down-draft from the chopper flipped Jim’s dinghy. Hall saved Moore a gruelling swim by towing him back to shore.
Police air support unit supervisor Sergeant Callum Young later up on the pole,’’ commended Hall’s efforts in the storm. Hall reckoned wife Janet might have been ‘‘a little bit worried’’ to see her husband rushing out to save a man.
Janet was nore straightforward: ‘‘I was blimmin’ terrified’’.
The pair laughs about it now — Janice had phoned her husband to ask whether she should summon 111 or the coastguard to rescue the man, not to dispatch Hall on the mission himself.
Hall did not believe he had been in too much danger and he would not hesitate to help a person in trouble in the future.
‘‘This summer one of my priorities will be learning to roll a kayak,’’ he laughed. ‘‘So I’ll be ready for the next storm.’’
AMANDA SAXTON