Concern over channel dangers
A dangerous incident at Mapua when two boys were stranded on a submerged sandbar has highlighted the dangers of the fast-flowing channel.
Although the tide was high at the time on Sunday, without the notorious current running at speed, the boys, aged around 12, could not get back to shore after swimming out in the channel from the Mapua Leisure Park.
The chef at the Boatshed Cafe and Bar in the campground, Aaron Johnson, was approached by worried campers and called the police but before an emergency services rescue was in place kayakers paddled out and pulled the boys to safety.
Mr Johnson said they had been standing on their toes to keep their heads above water until they were rescued. One young kayaker had tried to tow them both in but was not strong enough and a second went out and helped.
‘‘The current really rips through here but no-one really swims when it’s doing that. There wasn’t much of a current yesterday for them to get swept out – if the tide was raging, within five minutes they would have been a couple of hundred metres out.’’
He said the leisure park used to have a jet ski ready to go if anyone needed help but it had been withdrawn.
‘‘This is a public beach, not really anything to do with the campsite.’’
However, it would be good if the authorities or a boating group kept a small craft on standby, Mr Johnson said.
Tasman District Council harbourmaster Steve Hainstock commended the kayakers for rescuing the boys.
He said he had tried to drum up interest in the Mapua community for operating a rescue service but had been told that there were sufficient locals with boats they could launch quickly.
He had been concerned about the risk to swimmers in the Mapua channel since he became harbourmaster four years ago.
‘‘Spring tides are dangerous, particularly with the overfalls at the corner just seaward of the leisure park – water goes over there dropping like a rapid on a river, causing swirls and eddies – it’s really somewhere you don’t want to be.’’
He said that after extensive consultation, during the winter he put up signs in the camp, on the wharf and at the Grossi Point reserve warning swimmers of the danger and urging them not to swim in the two middle hours of an outgoing tide, when the current was strongest and could reach at least 8 knots (15kmh).
‘‘That’s when even a very strong swimmer would have difficulty controlling where they’re going.’’
He discouraged people from swimming across the channel to Rabbit Island, which meant crossing a boat access lane, and also warned of the dangers of swimming around the wharf when boats were using it.
‘‘I’d be keen for a bylaw that prevents swimming within 30 metres of a boat ramp or wharf if in use by boats, but I’ve been told anecdotally that’s unlikely to make its way through the consultation process,’’ Mr Hainstock said. He reminded kayakers and small boat owners not to tie their boats up across the current at the floating jetty attached to the wharf. A kayaker who did so was pushed under the pontoon by the buildup in water pressure. Small craft should be tied up in line with the current, and he would be marking the floating jetty appropriately.
Overall, the key boating safety messages were getting through and he had been ‘‘very pleased, on the whole’’ with behaviour. He had only issued two infringement notices this summer, one to a skipper who did not have enough lifejackets for everyone on board a small boat, and one for riding a jet ski under the legal age of 15.
Mr Hainstock was pleased to see more people wearing lifejackets in all conditions.
‘‘A lot of people are adopting it just like putting the seatbelt on when they get into the car. That’s good, because things can go wrong very quickly, even on a nice day.’’
He said a channel marker pile lost during winter and recently found in the estuary was seen floating out the channel a few days ago. It was about 7m long and marked with a wide green band, and would be floating high in the water.
‘‘I’d appreciate it if anybody sees it it could be anchored and the position reported to me so I can retrieve it.’’
‘‘Spring tides are dangerous, particularly with the overfalls at the corner just seaward of the leisure park – water goes over there dropping like a rapid on a river, causing swirls and eddies – it’s really somewhere you don’t want to be.’’ Steve Hainstock Tasman District Council harbourmaster