‘Exhausted, shaken’ paddleboarders thank rescuers after being swept across bay

Two paddleboarders say they are “exhausted, shaken” and feeling lucky to be alive after they were swept about 17 kilometres across Port Phillip Bay from Portarlington to Wyndham Harbour, prompting a major Christmas Day rescue mission.

The pair were among six people rescued by emergency services on Victorian waters on Thursday, with four people – all kayakers – also needing urgent help in the water after getting into trouble in separate incidents in the state’s south-east.

The two paddleboarders, a 17-year-old boy and 51-year-old woman from the same family, set out on their boards from Portarlington Caravan Park jetty on the Bellarine Peninsula about 3pm on Thursday but were carried away from the shore. Neither was wearing lifejackets.

Two hours later, a family member contacted Triple Zero when the pair had not returned, prompting police, Life Saving Victoria and the Queenscliff Coast Guard to begin a search.

The police air wing spotted the paddleboarders floating and waving for help at 6.20pm off Wyndham Harbour, near Werribee – about 17 kilometres from where they began – and water police rescued them. The pair were uninjured.

Footage from the rescue shows the two stranded on their boards in rough waters, before the police boat spots them and pulls them from the sea.

Thanking their rescuers from the comfort of dry land on Friday, the two paddleboarders said they were shocked at how quickly their carefree Christmas Day could have turned fatal.

“We’d like to express our sincere thanks to everyone who was involved in the rescue yesterday,” they said in a statement released by Victoria Police on Friday. “We are so grateful for the outcome but still trying to come to terms with how quickly a beautiful, carefree afternoon turned into an almost tragedy.

“We are exhausted, very shaken and feel so lucky we were able to stay together … The decisive and quick action led not only to our rescue, but our survival. Thank you so much.”

Their unexpected trip coincided with the coldest Christmas Day in Melbourne since 2006, as the city reached a top of just over 17 degrees.

Peter, a skipper with Queenscliff Coast Guard who declined to share his surname, said the paddleboarding trip was made hazardous due to windy conditions on the bay.

“They paddled and all of a sudden, the wind and the … tide got them and next minute they couldn’t make it back to shore,” he said.

“The key to this is just having a look at the conditions that you’re going to be dealing with.”

Peter said the search ended on a positive, “but at the end of the day, it’s something on Christmas Day you don’t think you’re going to be doing”.

In a separate rescue on Thursday, Life Saving Victoria winched three kayakers – a mother and her two teenage daughters – from the open sea as they drifted out to sea near Corinella, near French Island, 123 kilometres south-east of Melbourne.

Police said emergency services were called to Western Port Bay about 2.10pm after the trio tried to retrieve a kayak that was adrift when they were swept up in the current, ending up about 1 kilometre from the shore.

“The Westpac Rescue Lifesaver Helicopter was dispatched and winched three women from choppy waters and returned them to shore,” a spokesperson said. “All three people were conscious and breathing and were wearing lifejackets.

“Kayaking requires constant awareness and good decision-making. Conditions can change quickly, so it is vital kayakers prepare for the environment they are operating in.”

Earlier on Christmas Day, police were called to Lake King in Paynesville, Gippsland, almost 300 kilometres south-east of Melbourne, after reports of a kayaker in trouble. At 1.30pm, officers arrived at the scene and were told the man had not been seen for about two hours, but that his kayak had rolled.

Water police, along with the air wing and coast guard, searched for the man before he was found about 3pm. The man, from Hoppers Crossing in Melbourne’s west, was picked up by the coast guard and returned unharmed to shore.

In 2022, four teenage paddleboarders were swept more than 20 kilometres across Port Phillip Bay and lost at sea overnight, before landing at an island reserved for military training and eventually being saved.

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