Children rescue boats hit by high tide
On Thursday 24 August, a high tide which swamped Santos Beach and the Mossel Bay Yacht and Boat Club grounds damaged five boats substantially.
These boats had been on the land. Pupils of the Learn to Sail School at the club dropped what they were doing and rescued the boats from the high water caused by a spring tide. The school’s principal, Elfie Holden, said: “We were not going out to sea. We couldn’t launch because the waves were so bad.
I had the children doing land drills and classroom work. When we looked again the waves were so bad they were pushing the boats around.
“The children all ran into the water in their clothes and even in school clothes and we removed 13 boats from the beach to a higher grassy area on Santos beach and on to the yacht club premises. We pushed them or trolleyed them.
“The water was so high, sometimes the children were waist deep. We had 18 children and they all pulled together to save the boats. We started at 16:00 and it took us an hour.
The children had lots of scratches, bumps and bruises. They were from Sao Bras and Hillcrest that afternoon. They made me very proud.”
Holden said: “One Hobie 16 is totally written off. A Dart has a large hole and will have to repaired. Of the 13 boats we saved, about five were damaged.
They bumped against the dustbins mounted on poles on the beach. When the sea pulled back they got crushed against the poles.
“I have been here for 12 years and I have never seen the sea like that.”