Today's action: Catamaran troubles.

Here in and around Almere we have a lot of water. Living on the largest manmade island in the world, which is placed in a former open sea, means that we live close to water. And what do people who live close to water do? They go out and use that water for leisure.

So tonight, with the weather being great, on the waters around Almere all kinds of vessels could be seen, among which a number of catamarans. But this catamaran was found some distance from the shore by a passer by on the road along the water and this gentleman immediately knew something could be very wrong. The catamaran was tipped over and no persons were seen on or near the vessel.

So the emergency services were called in and a major search and rescue operation was initiated using two helicopters and a number of police and rescue boats. About an hour and a half later a person was located and rescued from open water. Fortunately he was in good health. He turned out to have been the only person on board the tipped over vessel so the SAR operation was ended.

But before all rescue boats had turned back to their respective stations another missing person in the same waters was reported. A woman fell off another catamaran and was not seen by her partner anymore. Again a search and rescue was started, but this time the woman was found and rescued quickly. She was taken to hospital.

Yes, living close to water is nice, presents a number of great opportunities for a sportive passtime, but also brings along some dangers. One of them being catamaran troubles.