Jurien Bay Marine Rescue claims top gong at WAFES Awards 2022

Marine Rescue Jurien Bay has been recognised for its efforts at the WA Fire & Emergency Services awards on Saturday night.

Jurien Bay took home the team achievement award, beating out fellow finalists Marine Rescue Geraldton and Margaret River.

The awards acknowledge the contribution emergency services personnel make to WA, particularly volunteers.

Marine Rescue Jurien Bay commander Chrissy Heu finished runner up in the individual achievement award, losing out to Emmie Burton, the youngest female commander in the history of Marine Rescue Dampier.

Ms Heu was one of a two-person crew who rescued a group of men whose vessel was in distress in stormy weather off the coast of Jurien Bay in May.

The group of friends were on their way from Carnarvon to Perth in the skipper’s 11.5m yacht when the trio hit bad weather.

The decision was made to head into the Jurien Bay marina to seek shelter, but the vessel ran out of fuel on the way.

Marine Rescue’s Mike Cockburn and Ms Heu received a call about 1am that an EPIRB emergency device had been activated west of the marina.

The pair spent the next two hours searching for the yacht and crew, with 5m swells and 30 knot winds hampering their efforts.

Mr Cockburn said it was becoming too dangerous to be out at sea and he was about to turn the rescue vessel around when a flare pointed them in the direction of the stranded yacht.

As they approached, another flare lit up the boat and revealed two men being tossed around in a small raft about 4km offshore.

The skipper had remained on board the yacht to try to attract attention with the EPIRB’s strobe light.

Mr Cockburn described the incident at the time as the hardest rescue he had been involved with.

“The conditions were pretty horrendous,” he said. “If we had to stay out there any longer I was going to call it.”

In May last year, Marine Rescue Jurien Bay was also involved in the rescue of Glenn Anderson and his 11-year-old daughter Ruby, with a broken leg, who had spent four hours in rough seas after their yacht was hit by a freak wave.