Marine Rescue Port Douglas has been playing training host
TRAINING
Marine Rescue Port Douglas has been playing training host over the past few days for five volunteers from the Gulf zone.
Like marine rescue volunteer squads in most places in Queensland, the Gulf zone is short of skippers.
Troy Black, Jenny Harders, Jeremy Boyle, all from Burketown, and Baxter Rewald and Nathan Tuskes, from Mornington Island, spent three days doing practical training in Port Douglas towards their Certificate II Maritime Operations. That certificate will enable them to skipper the rescue vessels in their zones.
The main training was in navigation, towing, man-overboard rescues and so on using MRPD vessels RV Mossman and RV Port Douglas.
The Gulf zone does not have any Australian Maritime Safety Authority accredited trainers, so Port Douglas trainer Doug Forno, assisted by Fred Swainston, took up the role.