A crew from Marine Rescue Jervis Bay is attempting this morning to recover a small boat that spotted adrift off Jervis Bay on Wednesday afternoon.
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A member of the public alerted the MR Jervis Bay radio base to the overturned vessel off the old lighthouse near Cape St George, south of the opening to Jervis Bay early Wednesday afternoon (March 31).
A crew from Marine Rescue JB located the bright orange upturned tender with rescue vessel Jervis Bay 40, while the Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter and Toll Ambulance Rescue helicopter searched the area without locating any other boats or people in the water.
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The crew of JB 40 could not attach a tow line to the boat and had to leave the vessel at its location, with Marine Rescue NSW issuing a warning to boaters south of the Bay to keep a lookout for the small boat adrift off the coastline.
It was thought the vessel, which was drifting, could possibly wash ashore in the Wreck Bay/Bendalong area but come Thursday morning the vessel had drifted inside the Bay.
Marine Rescue Regional Commander Bruce Mitchell said the crew of JB 20 were attempting to salvage the vessel Thursday morning.
"Crews are hopeful of attaching a line onto the boat and tow it to shore," he said
He said at this stage it was unknown where the boat had come from.
"It's only a small tender about three metres," he said.
"We haven't been able to find any identifying marks or registration on it yet at this stage," he said.
He said it was unsure whether it was a local boat that had broken its moorings, had been washed out via the floods or had actually been among other debris washed out to sea by floodwaters further north and had floated south.
"Hopefully when we recover the vessel and upturn it we will be able to fully identify it and discover where it has come from," he said.
"At this stage we have had no reports of missing vessels or missing people."