Sunny, windy weather kept Nanaimo Coast Guard Auxiliary volunteers busy this week.

Steve Jackson, unit spokesman, said the auxiliary responded to four rescue calls within 24 hours on Wednesday and Thursday.

“Usually we expect one or two incidents around a holiday, but four is pretty busy for us,” he said.

The first call, at 2:30 p.m. on July 1, was to assist a 5.2-metre fibrglass boat that had broken down about five miles east of Entrance Island.

Jackson said high winds and rough seas made it difficult for volunteers to find the boat, but the lighthouse keeper on Entrance Island spotted the vessel from its higher vantage point.

The father and daughter in the vessel were coming to Nanaimo from Horseshoe Bay and were towed to Gabriola Island.

At 2 a.m. July 2, volunteers went out to rescue three people and a dog on a 5.2-metre powerboat travelling from Ladysmith to a cabin on Mudge Island.

Jackson said the people left Ladysmith at about 8 p.m., thinking they would get to the island before nightfall.

“They were having some steering issues with their engine,” he said. “When we got there, they had the outboard motor out of the water and they were drifting.”

Jackson said the auxiliary towed the boat to Mudge Island, arriving at about 4:30 a.m.

Three hours later, volunteers were called to assist a 19-metre sailboat that had run aground on Satellite Reef next to Protection Island.

But on the way there, the crew was called to help another, smaller sailboat that had run aground in the Nanaimo Estuary mudflats.

“This other boat in the mudflats needed more immediate assistance – they were getting blown around quite a bit,” Jackson said.

Auxiliary volunteers pulled the vessel into deeper, flatter waters and went on to help the larger sailboat, which was carrying 13 people from Washington.

Jackson said volunteers decided it would be best to wait for the tide to rise again later in the day and took 10 of the people off the boat to spend the day on Newcastle Island until the tide freed the boat from the reef.