Wednesday, April 18, 2012

A happening off Gold Coast

This news from the Australian today has a long headline: "Police confident they will find fisherman sunk by freak wave off the Gold Coast."
POLICE are confident they can find a man missing off the Gold Coast since his boat capsized, after his female companion swam for at least three hours to raise the alarm.
The Gold Coast man, 39, was fishing with a family friend, a woman aged 29, when they were thrown from the 4.2 metre fibreglass boat some time between 9pm and 11pm yesterday.
They started swimming to shore but the woman lost voice contact with the man and became separated after about an hour.
It took her at least three hours to swim back to shore, where she raised the alarm at a Main Beach hotel about 2am.
A huge search is underway for the missing man.
Senior Sergeant Lucas Young of Gold Coast Water Police says the woman has confirmed a black jacket found around 8.30am is hers, and was on board the boat at the time.
The couple didn't have time to grab life jackets or a distress beacon when two large waves hit their boat, the second one causing it to take on water and quickly sink, he said.
Police are hopeful of finding the man, Sen Sgt Young told reporters.
"We're fairly confident we could locate him, yep," he said.
"Last night the wind has dropped out, there's not a big swell out there.
"In these conditions, this gentleman has had experience fishing offshore on the Gold Coast so I can't see any issues there."
He says visibility from the air is good.
There are no suggestions the man had been drinking.
Sen Sgt Young said the woman's efforts were extraordinary.
"She was very fatigued and struggled up the beach over a period of half an hour just to raise the alarm," he said.
The woman was suffering mild hypothermia and shock, and is recovering in Gold Coast Hospital.
Helicopters, jet skis, boats and shore line searchers are scouring the coastline to three nautical miles offshore.
They are yet to find the boat.
This report used the word "freaque" since there can be no doubt as to what had happened. The wind was calm and no big waves were reported when it was so happened that they "didn't have time to grab life jackets or a distress beacon when two large waves hit their boat, the second one causing it to take on water and quickly sink, . . ."

Let's pray that the police;s optism will be realized and rge missing fisherman will be rescued!

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