After another stellar summer in the Hastings, with more than 200,000 people visiting our beaches to relax and unwind, Port Macquarie Marine Rescue say they are very impressed with boating behaviour of visitors and local alike.
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For the December- January period unit commander Greg Davis said the local Marine Rescue unit received almost half of the calls they did the year before.
“Over Christmas, we received around 20 call outs which is significantly down on the 2016-17 summer, where we had over 40 recorded call outs,” Mr Davis said.
“Of the 20 call outs, we had two search and rescues for missing people and one boat fire and we saved more than $1.2 million worth of vessels.”
Mr Davis attributed the reduced call outs to locals being better educated and he praised boat owners for logging on with Marine Rescue when they went out on the water.
“I think this summer the weather has been good to us and has resulted in less call outs,” he said,
“On top of that, we have trying to build a good relationship with our boating community and we are seeing more and more people logging their trips with us.
“This is really good because as it means we can keep an eye on them, and if anything does go wrong we have all the information to go out and help immediately.
“In particular people are more cautious and educated about how to safely cross the bar and remembering to carry out regular maintenance on their boats to ensure everyone has a safe and happy day out on the water.”
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