Rosies to the Rescue

The new Sealord Rescue vessel was launched last month. Two of Nelson’s longest-serving Coastguard volunteers, Rosie Musters and Rosie Furniss have been closely involved with efforts to upgrade Nelson’s critical maritime rescue service.

Supporting mental health and emotional wellbeing after a trauma at sea is the invisible, but equally critical side of a rescuer’s work. It is a side of the role that has been a natural progression for two of the Nelson Coastguard’s longest-serving volunteers.

Counselling psychologist Rosie Musters and former nurse-turned-counsellor Rosie Furniss have introduced support systems that recognise the potential impact of trauma on the crew.

“We always have had formal debriefings after an incident but the bit we bring to this is to be aware of the impact that the rescue operation has had on the rescuers,” they say.

Nelson Coastguard president and New Zealand Coastguard board member, Pete Kara, says what the two women bring to the organisation has become critical to ensuring volunteers feel supported. He says their work to introduce steps to care for crew is unique within Coastguard.

“We never used to do that, but it became evident during one rescue, after a person had drowned and suddenly, we lost crew.

“Acknowledging the impact of trauma is critical to getting over it. No one knows what their threshold is until they come across something that is upsetting, but I do know that when the problem is shared across the team, it drops the burden a lot.”

The English-born Nelson women are no strangers to being trailblazers.

Initially silent over their relationship when they met more than 30 years ago, they then endured alienation from some quarters — particularly the church they belonged to, when they went public about their partnership.

“We have lived together since 1988, but at first we had to keep it quiet,” Musters says.

Furniss says back then, there was a lot of judgement, but today they are no longer the subject of gossip — they say it is a relief to now live in a world where few blink an eye.

Now in their 70s, the vibrant, active women are flying the flag for positive ageing helped by their love of Tai Chi, and volunteer activity that keeps them mentally engaged and busy on their feet.

The women’s foray into Coastguard coincided with the start of an air patrol unit in Nelson. They were searching for an activity to replace the sailing they both loved.

It had been an escape from busy careers at the time; Musters ran a private practice in counselling psychology and Furniss was a counsellor at Salisbury School.

“I had just got my private pilot’s licence so was like, ‘oh let’s go flying’!” Musters says.

They undertook specialist search and rescue (SAR) training with Furniss becoming an air observer while Musters became a co-pilot/navigator on the fourseater Cessna 172. Part of Furniss’ job involved learning how to drop a liferaft from the aircraft.

“We used to do a lot of practise, which in a small aircraft was quite difficult.”

It required one person to keep the aircraft door wedged open with their foot and the liferaft, which was attached to the bottom of Furniss’ seat, would be kicked out.

“The pilot would count down and I’d give it a boot. It was on a long string and as it dropped it inflated, about 100 feet below the plane."

Occasionally, it was frightening. Musters says they were at first required to carry a very heavy battery and radio set so they could communicate with the police on shore.

“We were conducting a search in the Marlborough Sounds and the weather was so appalling and the turbulence so bad, the battery stored behind the back seat flew up and hit the roof of the aircraft.

“Our heads hit the roof also, so we bailed out fast. It was a terrifying experience.”

The era of air patrol ended with the advent of cell phone communication and GPS (satellite positioning systems) on boats. It meant that boaties in trouble were able to give their positions instantly, which negated the need for air searches.

The pair then shifted to Coastguard Nelson’s sea-based operations.

For Musters, who descends from generations in the British Royal Navy, the sea is second nature.

“I come from a family where both grandfathers were in the Navy, my mother and father were both in the Navy, my brothers and uncles were in the Navy.

“I grew up with childhood stories of seafarers and if it weren’t war-time battles it was the ships and the sea and the weather and the wonderful places you could go.

“The sea has been in the blood of the entire family from the year dot."

For Furniss, who hails from the Midlands in the UK, life near the sea was foreign until she moved to Eastbourne, a coastal town on the English Channel. She came to New Zealand on a working holiday in 1969, enticed by family already here, and decided Nelson would be home.

Musters who had been a physical education teacher in the UK, came to New Zealand in 1976 and to a role at Otago University.

“I fell in love with New Zealand and then had to find a way to stay. The way to do that was to do my master’s degree in educational psychology.”

The nature of the women’s careers has been the basis of their volunteer work for a variety of organisations, but Coastguard has been at the heart of what they do.

Their focus is largely on incident management, and the skills they have learned has seen Musters join Civil Defence emergency management operations; most recently during the Tasman wildfires two years ago.

Musters is primarily a Coastguard instructor while Furniss is the welfare officer, which involves caring for the families involved or affected by a rescue mission, and then also the volunteers.

“When people get brought in after rescue, we make sure the ambulance is there if needed, and make sure we can get them from the boat to the ambulance…yes, right past the restaurant.”

The women say The Styx restaurant, right on the dock beside where the boat is moored, has become a great supporter.

“I rush past and yell ‘three hot chocolates, quickly’! And by the time I come back, there they are.”

Musters says to be a good Coastguard volunteer requires commitment to the role and to the required training, working as part of a close-knit team, and to be flexible within that team.

“Some want to come and play with boats, so we need to be honest about what to expect—sometimes we get called out in the middle-of-thenight and in very rough seas.

“We’re not going to take you out in fair weather just for fun. If you’re willing to make that commitment, then you’re in.”

Volunteers are most often self-employed, retired or have a supportive employer willing to release them at short notice.

“People who volunteer are special people. Several of our crew have their own businesses and once a week — the average time we are called out, they lose income from assisting others.”

Furniss also helps to organise crew gatherings away from pagers and cell phones, which include families for some time-out.

“I think that’s what makes us a tight unit. We care about each other.”

The New Zealand Coastguard says there are 2109 volunteers nationwide who each year volunteer over 276,300 hours to bring more than 6050 people home safely.

“Coastguard volunteers come from all backgrounds and walks of life, each bringing their own unique skills to their roles at Coastguard.

“Coastguard Nelson and the community it serves is really fortunate to benefit from the expertise that Rosie and Rosie have, and are able to provide to boaties in their time of need” the national organisation said.

It says like many organisations in the volunteer sector, Coastguard has an ongoing challenge to recruit and retain volunteers.  

It says volunteer numbers are currently steady, but over the last couple of years numbers have declined.

Coastguard has now put a volunteer strategy in place to better understand, engage and enable its volunteers.

By Tracy Neal for Nelson Magazine