Rescuing the crew of Cowrie Dancer.

Abstract

Written by Tom McSherry (Medic of M63): On 30 April 2007 we received a distress call from the remaining crew of the Cowrie dancer. One man (Blacky RIP) was lost over board and the remaining crew of 3 was in need of emergency medical rescue. The captain by name Dale Peterson was seriously injured. We flew the 2 BELL 212 helicopters over to the SA Agulhas from the island in the middle of the night and started sailing. It was real far out and the helicopter crew decided to fit a long-range fuel tank to the helicopter. The next morning we flew 70nm out to the yacht and second mate Gavin Syndercombe (no S.A. Agulhas II captain) and I was winched into the water. John Britton was the flight engineer and carried out the winch operations. We swam and boarded the Cowrie dancer and I started with emergency medical care and Gavin did his best (successfully) to keep us afloat for the 4 hours it took the S.A. Agulhas to catch up with us. I called for a RIB and the immobilized and stabilized captain was lifted into the RIB and taken to the Ships clinic - it was already dark. Here we arrive and the RIB get winched out of the water. The captain survived, although he was rather critical injured. The next day we flown grits in search of the missing sailor but we were not able to locate him and the search was eventually called off.