“We took a St John paramedic out with us, who treated the guy’s injured leg, and then we brought him into the port to a waiting ambulance,” Mr Brown said.
A callout two weeks ago was their only other callout.
“It was to a fishing vessel about 12 nautical miles offshore. The skipper had water in his fuel line and we towed him into port.”
Mr Brown said they welcome the small number of callouts in this district, compared to the rest of the country.
“We cannot really account for it. It could be local boaties are taking better care of their boat maintenance and themselves on the water, which is great.”
Nationally, Coastguard has seen a massive spike in boaties needing summer rescues after one of its busiest periods in recent years.
“The hot summer has definitely resulted in more people being out on the water,” said national chief executive Patrick Holmes.
“Thankfully, the majority of incidents, especially around the peak Christmas holiday period, were for mechanical issues.”
Major incidents included rescuing stranded motorists and residents in rapidly- flooding rivers in Canterbury, and rescuing a critically-ill passenger from a cruise liner in heavy seas off Auckland.
The summer boating season officially ends this weekend and the weather forecast is favourable for boaties.
“However, we warn that good weather should not lead to complacency.
“New Zealand’s weather is highly unpredictable and can change in an instant.”
