MyPE

Community Business Directory, Event Listings, News and Views from Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay

Groundhog Day for Ed Gutsche

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PORT ALFRED: Chris Pike, NSRI Port Alfred station commander, reported:

NSRI Port Alfred attended to 3 incidents in the past days.

On Thursday, 28 November, NSRI Port Alfred were alerted to a local around the world male solo sailor reporting steering failure to his 6 meter sailing yacht.

The sailor put to anchor, offshore of Port Alfred, and on Friday afternoon NSRI launched to investigate but sea conditions in the Kowie River Mouth were not conducive to tow the sailing yacht through the river mouth.

On Saturday afternoon, NSRI Port Alfred launched rescue craft and towed the yacht safely to the small boat harbour, in Port Alfred, where the yacht was moored without incident and repairs will be affected by the sailor.

On Saturday afternoon, 30 November, NSRI Port Alfred launched rescue craft up the Kowie River to assist a turtle reported by bystanders to be appearing to be injured and in distress.

On arrival on the scene a turtle, with injuries from unknown causes, was recovered by NSRI Port Alfred rescue swimmers and brought to the NSRI Port Alfred station 11 rescue base aboard the NSRI rescue craft.

The turtle was transported to Bay World in Gqeberha for further care and NSRI is informed that the turtle will be transported to the V&A Aquarium for further medical care and rehabilitation.

On Sunday, 1 December, at 13h04, NSRI Port Alfred duty crew were activated following reports from the Ndlambe Municipal beach manager of a drowning in progress at West Beach.

The beach manager had thrown the NSRI pink rescue buoy towards a local 20 year old male who was in difficulty in the surf but the pink rescue buoy had not reached the man who was in distress.

NSRI Port Alfred prepared to launch rescue craft and NSRI rescue swimmers responded directly to the scene.

Local Good Samaritan Edward Gutsche, who was nearby at the time and noticed the man in distress, grabbed the NSRI pink rescue buoy and with his body boarding flippers on, he launched into the water to assist the man.

Edward reached the casualty in the mid surf break where using the NSRI pink rescue buoy to aid the casualty to stay afloat he towed the casualty through the breakers safely to the beach.

On NSRI’s arrival on the scene, following a medical assessment to the casualty, he was found to not be injured and he was advised to keep a watch for non-fatal drowning symptoms.

Good Samaritan Edward Gutsche, who assisted in a similar case in 2022 at Kelly’s Beach for which he received an NSRI award, (See: https://www.nsri.org.za/2023/07/2023-nsri-agm/) is commended for saving the mans life.

This is the 201st successful NSRI pink rescue buoy rescue, that we know of, where to date no harm has come to any bystander using a pink rescue buoy to save a life, since the inception of the NSRI pink rescue buoy program in 2017.

Ed Gutsche
Edward Gutsche receiving his Bravery Gold Award in 2023 for his heroic actions on 1 October 2022 when he saved four lives at Port Alfred’s Kelly Beach.
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