Saluting our dedicated officers on the ground!
By: Kamal Hakim
SI Kelly Goh and SSS Nur Haqim
SI Kelly Goh (K): I was considering my career choices when I was younger and I recall my classmate saying to me, “come to the sea, it’s very fun”. Who knew that I would end up spending 18 years as a PCG officer (laughs).
SSS Nur Haqim (H): Five years ago, I was a GRF officer at Changi NPC and the switch from land to sea was interesting! I made the switch as I wanted to learn about seamanship and pick up new skills.
K: This incident happened on 11 July last year. It was around 1pm in the afternoon, and we were out performing sea patrol. The sea-state was choppy with strong winds.
H: Yes, the weather was bad. We received an alert regarding a boat that had capsized somewhere along the sea off East Coast Park and we proceeded to the scene immediately.
K: From afar, we sighted two men in the water holding on to the sides of a capsized sailboat. Thankfully, they had lifejackets on.
H: The men were exhausted from being in the water and multiple attempts of righting their sailboat. We helped them onboard our craft and found out that they lost control of their sailboat on their way to the jetty when the weather turned bad.
K: We confirmed that they didn’t require medical attention, and offered to assist them to flip over their capsized boat.
H: It was my first time helping to overturn a vessel at sea, so in my head I was recollecting what I learnt during training. Together with my crewmates, we threw a rope to tie their vessel to ours. Then all of us pulled hard to flip the boat.
K: While all of them were outside in the rain, I was inside our boat, at the helm (laughs)
H: Haha yes, but Kelly’s job is actually the most difficult!
K: It wasn’t easy controlling the boat and keeping it steady in that rough sea-state.
H: Eventually, we managed to flip the boat over. The men’s belongings were floating around the water, so we helped to retrieve the items for them as well.
K: We advised them to head back to shore and escorted them due to the bad weather.
H: They were very thankful!
K: For me whenever I go out to sea, what’s foremost on my mind is to ensure the safety of everyone. Be it members of the public or my own crewmates. Go out safe, come back safe :)
H: It was an interesting incident. The type of cases I encounter at sea may be different, but the mission remains the same - to protect life and property.
Explore Our Content
Editor's Pick
