It's about the passion

A few weeks ago I had a friend complain about her long working hours - post call delusion as she likes to put it - at the hospital she is interning as a doctor. Instead of ignoring the email, I decided to reply back and said something along the lines of: " ... to put things into perspective; you’re getting married & get to save people’s lives: be it big or small, you’re helping someone. Not many people get to say they do that shit so I think it’s an awesome job and you get paid moola for it. I wish I got paid for Sea Rescue (NSRI). Just saying"

How it began?
Looking back on nearly 10 spectacular years as a volunteer, it was probably the dumbest and best decision of my life. I so innocently agreed to do my community service project for school at the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) Table Bay station based at the V&A Waterfront in 2000 as I didn't feel like playing with babies (my mom owns a nursery school) or spending time elsewhere. My aunt's then boyfriend mentioned something about boats and the sea and I thought; cool.

First impressions always count right? Yeah, they definitely do in this case and after spending part of my first afternoon at the station scrubbing down a boat in miserable, stormy, horrendous Cape Town weather, I joined the rest of the crew upstairs where they were happily having lunch until a callout came through from Cape Town Port Control. A yacht had capsized off the breakwater with 3 people on board and was sinking. Within a few seconds the crew had thrown their lunch down on the table and rushed downstairs to the old Rescue 3 - Spirit of Safmarine II (12 metre rescue vessel) and the old Rescue 3A (5.5. metre RIB). I stayed behind with the shore controller watching them literally launch within in a few minutes and dash out into horrendous sea conditions - I kid you not. For the next 2 odd hours it was a waiting game for a very inquisitive 16-year-old girl who had no idea (honestly) what they could be doing. They finally returned soaking wet but smiling and chatting about war stories that happened in those few hours. I left shortly after and returned the following week to continue with my last few hours of the project.

Spirit of Vodacom

This time I got to go out training with the crew that was on duty that weekend in a blistering south-easter. I'm not even sure what training they were doing but I remember we had a callout that day. A resident at Clifton spotted a parachutist fall into the ocean off Clifton beach. An extensive search was conducted and nothing was found. What I learned later is that when the south-easter blows like that, 'white horses' as we like to call them, form on the ocean surface. You can mistake a 'white horse' for many different things such as a capsized boat to paraglider in trouble to an upturned kayak.

NSRI wedding advert done by Ogilvy

It's not all a blur
Now I don't know when I officially decided to go sign that indemnity and become a trainee crew at Station 3 - Table Bay but I will always remember the date that ultimately changed the course of my life. 24 February 2001 is when I rang the station doorbell after being dropped off by my mom. I was greeted by a crew member and taken upstairs to 'start' with my NSRI volunteer crewwoman career. I was 16 at the time and obviously still at school and extremely busy with hockey playing nearly 4 times a week for club, WP schools and the year before I had made S.A U16 so I was fully committed to the sport on all levels. What I always laugh at is it never really occurred to me that I may not last or never be accepted due to my general oblivious / ignorant nature that I do at times have. Nearly a year later the station decided to have an action cricket day and invited me to join. That was the day, I officially become one of 'them'. The day I bowled one of the coxswains middle stump, twice and had a great partnership with another crew member. That's not to say I was never accepted before. From what I've learned over the past few years is the crew is one big family and forming life-long friendships with new people every month only to be let down when they leave gets tiring, so the crew take their time in getting to know the trainees.

Some of the amazing people

Over the next couple of years I had been taken under 2 crew member's wings in the form of Giles and Jaco who I now see as my older brothers and nearly a week after my 18th birthday I was officially given my crew badge, my pager and allowed to buy my red Musto foul weather gear. An extremely proud moment and one that involved a lot of hard work. The experiences we've gone through together as one big family; engagements, marriages, births, tragedies, deaths and the daily journey of life, continues to this day. And that includes all the different types of callouts from tow jobs, capsized vessels, groundings, drownings, plane crashes to looking for a needle in a haystack, we have literally done it all and every callout is different, bringing out the best in our training and adapting it to the situation that is presented to the crew. It's a never-ending learning experience and we get to save lives on South African waters in the process.

Doug, Jaco, Giles & Pieter (L-R)

I could probably go on forever in this post but what I do know is this: it is something that continually inspires me and adds to my reason to get up in the morning. Being surrounded by a fantastic bunch of people, the people who I call my family (even cooler is some have met their husbands or wives here) is something I will not give up on in a heartbeat and will continue to passionately volunteer for no pay, if it means that I get more value out of the 'job' then I would have being paid.

Do you volunteer your time to charities? Would love to know your experience.




NSRI JP Andrews advert created by Ogilvy.