Cape Town - A father and son entered their third day of drifting in a stricken boat off the Cape coast today – but by mid-morning they had still not been found.
The missing men Christy Jordaan, 59, and his son Brandon, 36, are the husband and son of Berandina Jordaan, a DA municipal councillor from Paternoster on the West Coast.
An urgent search continued for the pair this morning by the NSRI’s teams at Mykonos in Langebaan, backed up by teams from the Table Bay base in Cape Town and from Yzerfontein, as well as a police rescue craft.
An air force crew in a Dakota searched from the sky. Ashore, police teams continued scouring the coastline.
The drama began at 2.55pm on Wednesday, when the Mykonos duty crew were called out for a fishing boat with two men on board that had lost motor power and was adrift in dense fog in the vicinity of Paternoster.
For the first 18 hours, the men remained in contact. But despite an extensive search they could not be found on Wednesday night.
“Dressed warmly and with life-jackets, the men were instructed to anchor and deploy drogues to reduce drift and the search resumed at first light (yesterday),” reported Gerard Brune, NSRI Mykonos station commander.
The search expanded but was hampered by thick fog.
Cellphone contact with the men was lost at about 9am yesterday, probably after the phone’s battery died.
The search continued until late last night and resumed this morning.
“Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre is consolidating the search areas already completed, and is assisting in calculating ongoing search areas and patterns,” said NSRI spokesman Craig Lambinon.
Rescuers suspect the men may have been far from where they thought they were when they sent out their initial SOS, so the search has widened, including north towards Lambert’s Bay, this time in rain and drizzle.
Councillor Jordaan said: “My husband and son are both professional fishermen; they are very experienced. We hope they will find them soon…”
Cape Argus