Coast guard rescues family stranded on island by boatie
ONE of the quirkiest jobs the Yeppoon Coast Guard was called to during the Christmas break concerned a man who dropped his family at Great Keppel Island and then went fishing and his boat broke down.
His family was then left "stranded"on the island.
They contacted the coast guard who then went to the island and retrieved the family and brought them back to the mainland, then went back and located the man and towed his craft back to the marina.
The commander of the flotilla, Arthur Hunt, said he was happy to report the coast guard had been fairly quiet during the break and there were no major incidents.
"We mainly had the usual boat-engine breakdowns and boats running out of fuel," Mr Hunt said.
"We get smaller boats that go too far out and, even when it's calm, this is still a worry as the smaller craft should stay closer to shore.
"On Boxing Day we had to rescue a small runabout which had travelled a long way out to sea, 30km north-east of North Keppel Island, and had to be towed back to shore after running out of fuel.
"And late yesterday we had to tow back a big cruiser from Monkey Beach after its engine failed."
The Coast Guard also had to rescue "a couple of its own".
"These are people who belong to our supporters' club and are offered three free tows a year," Mr Hunt said.
"The other quirky job we were called to was when someone called in to say they had seen a distress call with lights coming from between Cape Manifold and Stockyard Point but it turned out to be a false alarm."
