It was a move that should not be taken for granted — no matter how many times it has been done before, the New Zealand Coastguard says.
Coastguard Bar Safety programme lead Simon Marshall presented a Crossing the Bar information evening in Riverton last Thursday to an audience of about 100 people.
The evening was part of a national roadshow to provide information to reduce fatalities and accidents which could easily happen during a crossing.
Six people had died crossing estuary bars in New Zealand this winter.
Bars were a build up of sand, gravel and sediment underwater where a river or harbour met the open ocean and caused unpredictable wave patterns that could easily flip or swamp a vessel. They constantly changed — especially after a high water flow, which made local knowledge invaluable, he said.
Presenters empathised with the Riverton community over its loss of three residents and Mr Marshall believed the August accident had impacted the attendance numbers.
All bars needed to be treated with respect and if boaties wanted to cross a bar safely, there was a list of must-dos that should be applied, he said.
Riverton Coastguard skipper Barry Anderson, who had served with the Riverton team for the past 20 years, said he was part of the group who dealt with August’s fatalities.
"[The job] is about bringing people home safe every time, and you wish you had the phone calls earlier to just help people home; we want to see smiles."
Rivertonian and Coastguard volunteer Noel Anderson, who had been crossing Riverton’s waters for the past 50 years, said Riverton had two bars to negotiate — one was spongy gravel at its shallowest part and the other was hard sand.
"If you hit that, you’re probably going to break something because it’s very hard when you hit it."
Despite the accident, Riverton was believed to be one of the safest bars in the country but it was still a crossing to always be respected, he said.
When an accident happens on a bar, it happened so fast, people often did not have an opportunity to use on-board Emergency Position Radio Beacons to call for help, he said.
"The story is, if you can’t communicate with us, we can’t communicate with you," Noel said.
He recommended boaties carry a personal locator beacon zipped into a pocket or mobile phone in a waterproof pouch.
Noel said there were multiple factors that impacted a safe crossing including the skipper’s skills, as well as the draft and speed of the vessel, wind direction, water volume and speed.
"One thing we’d say before crossing the bar, for trailer boats, if you’re not used to it, avoid low tide by two hours.
"The most dangerous winds we have on our bar come from the east or southeast — that's when we get our big roll. A big white water rolls come right across the bar ..."
While the Jacob’s River Estuary had navigation markers, it was still possible for things to go wrong.
A log-in/log-out crossing report was one service the Coastguard provided. If a boat failed to log out within 15 minutes, it would automatically trigger a Search and Rescue response, he said.
- By Toni McDonald
