Two divers risked their own lives to rescue a man who was thrown from his boat off Swansea Heads at Lake Macquarie this afternoon.
His runabout was struck by a large wave near Moon Island, just after midday – nearby charter boat, Grey Nurse Charters raced to help.
“He was really struggling to stay afloat, holding on to his boat which was sinking.”
“You gotta help people – the man was in trouble, we were able to help him, the two of us got onto the island and we did the job and it worked out OK.”
The man, who was wearing a lifejacket, was airlifted to hospital.
Vision courtesy of Grey Nurse Charters.
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Today at 11:35 my brother and I was fishing out at Swansea Heads directly in front of moon Island trolling lures. When we passed the boat and my brother and I both thought that he was drifting in to close and we’ll just about to yell out when we witness his boat flip upside down and come landing down on top of him. Straight after that happened we got on to the radio and tried calling Coast Guard at the same time as I grab my phone and also called up coast guard and reported the incident at 11:38. We stayed on scene and kept site on him until rescue could arrived at the same time we seen a boat with people that were in scuba diving gear. We went and pulled up next to their boat and informed them what happened. The man was in the water being smashed up against the rocks and I stated to the other people that it is not looking very good at all. We have already called coast guard. My brother and I was looking to see if there’s any way that we could get to him via boat, but the swell was too big and at that point in time I had the idea of going around to the back of the Island to get onto the island to be able to get a down to him to him. The people that was in the other boat with the scuba diving gear had the same idea and had already got to the back of the island and managed to get two person onto the island and start to make there way over to him. they got him out of the water and up onto the rocks which at that point we finally found out he was still alive. By that stage all that we could do was sit around and just watch and wait until the rescue arrive to be able taken him away and get him to hospital. I hope he is alright because from where I was watching it did not look very good. If only within the minutes before it happening, I wish I yelled out to the guy to say watch out you drifting a bit close. Because we were no more than 10-15 metres away when a swell came through with two big waves which managed to flip his boat.