When 16-year-old Rhodlyn Rademeyer finally made it back to the beach, he could still hear his uncle and cousin screaming for help.
This is the lingering and chilling memory Rhodlyn has of his uncle, Gert Vermaak, 35, and Vermaak’s 10-year-old son, Keith, before they were lost to the sea off Beachview on Saturday evening.
The three were involved in a tragic fishing accident which played out in calm seas in the vicinity of the closed Beachview Resort in Port Elizabeth from about 7pm.
The accident claimed the lives of Gert and Keith after their canoe capsized when it was struck by a series of waves.
The drownings took place within 2km of where the Vermaaks were living in a Beachview home.
Rhodlyn, of Algoa Park, on the urgent instruction of his uncle, desperately swam for help and for his life, taking nearly an hour to reach the safety of the beach and run home to raise the alarm.
The body of Keith was recovered on the shoreline in the vicinity of the accident on Monday, while the body of his father was found on Wednesday in the same area.
The area is not far from where they had launched their canoe from a gully near the Beachview Resort tidal pool.
Speaking at an emotional gathering at a family member’s Sherwood home on Friday, tearful and dazed family members, including Rhodlyn, Vermaak’s wife and mother of their son, Anika Vermaak, 35, and Rhodlyn’s mother, Lila Rademeyer-Minnie, 43, expressed utter disbelief at the tragedy.
Still in a state of shock, Rhodlyn said the fishing excursion had taken place as a spurof-the-moment idea.
The plan was to have fun in the shallows off the shoreline and give his young cousin a chance to try out his new fishing rod.
“My uncle was at the back of the canoe paddling, Keith was in the middle and I was at the front,” Rhodlyn said.
“We just seemed to move away from the shore when a wave suddenly came and hit the boat.
“It knocked my uncle from the back. I stood up to try and balance the boat and then there was another wave and the canoe capsized.”
Rhodlyn said he could hear his uncle calling for help in the water, but as they were struggling, Vermaak instructed him to swim to shore and to get help while he was assisting his son.
“I swam for the shore, it was getting dark, it was tough and I was scared,” Rhodlyn, who was battered and bruised by rocks in the area he had to cross to get to the beach, said.
“I could still hear them shouting for help when I got to the beach.”
Breaking down in tears, Anika was at pains to point out that her husband had no intentions of fishing irresponsibly.
“They only took one small piece of bait with them. They were meant to be close to the shore, but especially to give Keith a chance to use his new fishing rod,” she said.
“Gert would never have endangered the children.
“He was a very strong swimmer and so is Rhodlyn. Gert adored his children,” Vermaak, who also has a five-year-old daughter, Hailey, said.
She said her young daughter had made utterances in the immediate period before the three went fishing which had amounted to what they believed to have been a premonition of the accident.
“I just can’t believe this, I still just can’t believe this happened. I don’t think this has actually sunk in yet,” she said.
Anika also related the shock and sadness she experienced while present at the site where her son’s body had come ashore.
Anika, who is employed at a butchery, said her husband, who was a mechanic and panel beater, had started a new job just two weeks ago.
“His boss was very complimentary of him and his work. My husband was a workaholic, he worked very hard. He was a man-in-a-million,” she said.
She described her son as “very clever and a kind and nice boy”.
“His teachers at Piet Retief Primary School liked him very much and say he was a great boy. He loved cricket,” she said.
Keith was due to start at a new school in January.
An equally distraught Rademeyer-Minnie said the family had experienced a torrid time through the tragedy.
“We had no such thing as Christmas. We all still can’t believe what happened. We are a very close family. We do not even feel like New Year’s, this is so terrible,” she said.
“We would like to thank everyone who helped in the search, and we especially want to thank the chokka boats and their crew who played a huge part in the search, putting themselves in danger.
“They were amazing. I also want to thank God for saving my son.”
In an unusual indication of the timing around her son’s epic swim, she said while it was known that the three had been in the water from around 7pm and that the canoe had capsized shortly into the trip, her son had struck his watch nearing the shore during his swim.
“The watch had stopped at exactly 7.55pm,” she said.
The family on Friday also stuck by the allegations they made in the immediate wake of the accident that the massive search and rescue operation launched had been far from optimal.
Search and rescue professionals confirmed to the Weekend Post earlier that no aircraft had been available in the city at the time to assist in the search for the father and son.
A funeral service will be held for the two victims at the Evangelisasie Sentrum at 26 Cleeve Road, Cotswold at midday on January 2.