Saving Lives at Sea S08E03 – Heart of the Community

When reports come in of a kayaker who has failed to make it back to shore – where his wife is watching on helplessly – the Larne crew race to the rescue.

We’re an island nation drawn to the sea that surrounds us a playground for some for others it’s where they make their living but the sea is unpredictable it’s Mother Nature it’s a beast there to save our lives is a volunteer army of over 5,000 Ordinary People ready to leave their jobs their

Families and race to our rescue when the Pedro goes it’s the adrenaline rush every single time you could make the difference between life and death I felt very lucky then bringing me back to life again was a miracle okay equipped with their own cameras just the two of you someone on the crews

Give us a unique insight into every call out nice deep breaths okay as only they see it the hel is here okay for those who risk their lives it has become a way of life come on you have to do your best because somebody’s family are relying on you to save them hold

On lying on the river tyv in the county of kedigian South West Wales is the town of Cardigan we’re named as cardigan lifebook station but it’s based in pire which is poppet son I don’t know why they didn’t call it poppy Sons there’s been a Lifeboat here since

1849 when the town’s Port was one of the largest and busiest in the country in a Coastal Community like cardigan and St dog males um the Lifeboat is is at the heart of the community there was an enormous amount of commercial traffic traffic that went out of Cardigan and the Lifeboat was a

Key part of that nowadays with the old deep water Port silted up cardigan attracts a different kind of seaf farer the coastline is becoming increasingly popular certainly with kakas and ceras and that type of thing it’s a great playground if you’re into your outdoor sports it’s quite a rugged Coastline and

It interspersed with caves and cliffs and Rocky outcroppings and it can be quite treacherous a sunny day towards the end of August a fresh Westerly wind is gusting up to 20 M an hour a walker on cliffs Southwest of the station has called the Coast Guard they’re concerned about two people

Who appear to be in trouble in the Seas below no the initial information that we’d received was that there were two kayakers um in the water um having capsized and and struggling to get back on board their their K you have two people in the water so

You’re going to want to get on scene as quickly as possible the station’s d-class Lifeboat launches immediately okay yeah you’re good the two casualties have been spotted near the witch’s cauldron a popular destination for kayak is 4 mil Southwest of the Lifeboat station on the journey out of the Esty conditions are relatively

Calm but once the boat hits Open Water they soon take a turn for the worse as we got out of the bay into the into this sort of the sea area it got quite buy then it was going towards the top end of the operating window for the d-class in those

Conditions you can go Airborne you can cap size and you can get crew members go overboard it is that balance between getting there as quickly as you can and not damaging the crew the coast guards called us up and they worried about the sea State and about our safety and they are about

The are you content with the condition are you happy happy with condition uh for now yeah got to look after ourselves and our vessel first and foremost and I think you would need to balance that very carefully and make sure that we didn’t Place ourselves in any danger

It’s a coast guard ask if you’re not happy and if you’re not safe you say no but on this day we just all looked at each other and sort of said thumbs up and off we went again you know after 20 minutes plowing through the churning sea

The crew arrive at the casualty’s last reported position as we approached the area we were scanning the sea it is very difficult to see people in the water so you do need to be careful and you need to be very Vigilant but there’s no sign of the kayakers in amongst the

Waves and then we saw the coast guards on the point of the wit is gon so I raged the Coast Guard and asked him if he had eyes on that’s can you Mo he said that he’d lost them and would we search back towards guardan so Shoreline search around

Here after an anxious few minutes scanning the shoreline the crew finally sight two figures stranded at the base of the 100t high Cliffs can’t the casualties no longer have their kayaks unable to climb the sheer Cliffs and with the nearest beach almost a mile swim away they have no means of

Escape the Lifeboat crew must somehow get into them safely and then extract them before they’re washed off the Rocks the casualties were pinned at the base of a cliff um there was a a surge of water which meant that we couldn’t nose the Lifeboat in for fear of being

Capsized or damaging the Lifeboat um so you could potentially and Veer onto there maybe or that corner yeah that corner looks like that’s a bit better it is the options you had were to Veer down but I think it was quite deep there veering down involves anchoring

The boat and slowly reversing in but in these conditions this could be too dangerous it’s close enough to be able to get a throw line across yes um so I’m happy depending on what you want to do to swim across talk to him if yeah if you want to throw a throw

Line in and we’ll drag out hel Mark agrees that Simon will swim into the Rocks the crew will then use ropes to haul him and the casualties onto the boat my decision on the day for Simon to swim in it’s not taken lightly cuz there’s there’s an added uh risk of

Simon becoming specialty then okay’s go okay if you leave the safety of a Lifeboat at any point you have to have trust that if it all goes wrong then your crew in the Lifeboat I’m going to come and get You as you get close into the cliff Edge you get smashed up against the the rocks and you grab hold of whatever you can and then as the wave recedes it tries to peel you off and you hang on and then you wait for the next wave and you grab

A next bit of rock Up after doing that for a couple of times I managed to craw my way up um the the face of the rocks and go and have a chat with the casualties how doing guys good afternoon exhausted the two casualties are otherwise unscathed aside from a few

Cuts and scrapes Kevin you both okay but now they need to be brought off the rocks and into the safety of the Lifeboat I think every job is is very different in terms of of how you um extract a casualty and it depends on the the situation um it depends on the

Weather um and it depends on the casualties um their competence their their comfort so it’s super slippery on the Rocks just be careful with the swirls break breaking over shallow rocks just offshore it’s too dangerous to maneuver the declass close into the cliffs so the casualties must now enter

The sea and be hauled into the Lifeboat generally you probably wouldn’t want casualties jumping back into the water um sometimes it’s a necessary evil oh good catch my man ideally you want to get the lifeo in right next to where they are and they just simply step

In but on that day that was the best option to get them off quickly and relatively safely so if we walk down to the edge here explained where was the safest place to jump in y lovely um and I suggested uh we we wait for a wave to

Come in so let’s wait for it wait for it okay let’s wait for this one okay I just jump forward he’s in this is the bit of most Jeopardy for them and for us um we have a Lifeboat we have lines in the water um we have a

Casualty in the water if all went horribly wrong you were jumping in the water to try and assist them as well I was like hold on hold on don’t don’t let go don’t let go you know talking to him all the time and and you know pulling

Him in at the same time so hopefully that didn’t look too scary so he was pulled aboard by Louise and Mark and whilst they were doing that I Was preparing the second casualty for extraction so okay so on this one so for get 3 two one and

Jump I was very relieved that they managed to enter the water safely that they were hanging onto the line that they were pulled to safety and that the the plan worked exactly as we planned it all that’s left now is for Simon to return to the Lifeboat once we’ve got all three back

On board it was a relief it was then looking at then a bit more of assessment on their injuries and what state they were in can I just feel your hand for a second just how cold you are apart from you know a little bit of

Cold and a few minor Cuts they they didn’t look too bad actually I think that was probably the safest and easiest way of getting you out of there it was that helicopter knowing that both Kevin and myself were safe in the Lifeboat you kind of feel a sense of

Relief I knew the worst was over earlier that day friends Gwyn and Kevin had set off to try and kayak to the witch’s cauldron but as they made their way along the coast the sea State worsened a couple of waves had made the kayak kind of rock and I’d had to fight

To stay on top of it then just one wave came came and washed me off I turn around and there’s Gwyn in the water capsized paddle over to the kayak and said to GW right let’s get back on board for some reason I decided to try and

Climb on um using his kayak my kayak went up like the Titanic and I went in as well he put all his weight on the back of the kayak and we were both in the water it’s amazing he still talking to me we got my kayak wred but my kayak had

Taken in water when I sat back on the kayak next wave that came I was washed out again and at that point there you think I’m not getting back in the kayak so two options were either to try and stay with the kayaks out at sea or to make it onto the

Rocks by now Gwyn and Kevin were both drained of energy and faced with a difficult dilemma I decided that there’s no way I could get onto the rocks with the kayak and make it safe I have to ditch the kayak and meak he and me which

In hindsight was a problem um the phone was actually in a waterproof pouch but it wasn’t on my body with no kayaks and no mobile phones Kevin and Gwynn’s only hope now was that a walker they’d spotted on the cliff had also seen them we sat down to wait and

Then decided Well what are we going to do now should we swim for it and we waited probably about 45 minutes until Gwyn said have we seen what’s coming it was a massive sensor Rel because you then know you are going to be rescued yeah

This is the easy bit now to be honest that bit there was the worst of it all nearly 45 minutes after launching the Lifeboat crew brought Kevin and Gwyn to a waiting Coast Guard rescue team I’m very grateful to the Lifeboat crew that day um you know putting themselves in

Risk coming out to rescue us yeah about knee deep but really uneven it was extremely lucky was somebody was on that Coastal path if they hadn’t been there if they been a minute or so further down the path they were never been seen you know they were definitely live saved that day yeah

Definitely Kevin and Gwynn’s kayaks were recovered from the sea later that afternoon after the shout I was driving home and drove into my estate and uh I looked at my right hand I was like I’m sure I just rescued those two kayaks and one of the guys was out the front so I

Said have your kayaks just been res rescued and he said yes and he was so impressed with Arin Ai and what had happened I just looked at him and I said that was me on that boat really since been rescued I’ve bumped into Louise a couple of times

Unfortunately only in the street I’ve never been able to buy a drink yet but one Day over the years the 238 Lifeboat stations around the the UK and Ireland have always been at the heart of their local communities the whole Community is based around the water here so the life boat really has been for many years a key part of

That it’s a good feeling to know that um you’re doing something for the community and that’s people appreciated definitely it’s like a hub in some respects um it brings so many different people together from all walks of life to want to achieve the same aim we don’t do for any

Rewards from the Community we do it simply to help others when we come together we really really support each other we trust each other completely that makes us all feel very safe in these scenarios ja can you hear me over life B creu feel like a second family a

Lot of the guys that I’m with I went to school with I’ve grown up with a lot of the crew are my family so there’s no really getting away from it for Me on the east coast of County ANM Northern irand lies the port town of L my father-in-law calls Lauren Northern Ireland’s best kept secret we’ve got some stunning beaches we’ve got some lovely Coastal walks so it’s just a great place to get into the outdoors enjoy the sea enjoy the coast enjoy the

Landscape it’s lovely lawn is one of the Irish Sea’s busiest ports and the Lifeboat station is a focal point of the town There’s a real sense of community here in Lauren and I think there in LA Lauren life Bo station are a key aspect of that and they play a really active

Role in the community I pretty much grew up on the station um with my dad being part of the crew you were in and you were bouncing on the boat and you were really anywhere you were allowed to go you were in the back of the Land Rover

Thinking oh this is aming like it’s a very close station it’s just a big family as we always say we’ve husbands and wives Fathers and Sons fathers and daughters brothers and sisters Cox and Frank has volunteered at L since the station was established nearly 30 years

Ago and like a number of crew members here his life booting Legacy is being continued by his family my son jack from an early early age he was so interested every shout he would have waited up till I came in and the first thing he would

Hear the voice coming out of the bed with Dad what was it I always knew that that’s what I wanted to do I think actually applied on my 17th birthday I remember um Jack was only a baby and there being a shout and having to bring

Him in and just set him on the table and the little Curry I just just left them but people rally around down and take care of the crew in the station are my other family they are just an extension of of my family but it’s so special to have your

Son by your side doing that money couldn’t buy it so September as Darkness Falls temperatures are dropping fast a burst of 999 calls have come in from Browns Bay nearly 2 miles Northeast of the station the page for the big boat went and then straight after the page for the

Small boat went so we knew it’s a need to go I need to go now a man who’ been fishing from his kayak in the Bay has not returned to his family on Shore as soon as you hear that someone’s potentially in the water there’s a real

Sense of urgency we’ve got to get out there and find them as quickly as possible it’s reported that the kayaker is not wearing a life jacket with the tide now flooding out he could very quickly be dragged out into the cold deep Waters of the Irish sea your initial thoughts when you

Someone on the water is how long have they been on the water water for they’re in a wet they a dry set there’s no life jacket on they’re using so much more energy to keep themselves afloat which obviously isn’t ideal because they’ll be losing heat and they’ll be losing energy

And they’ll lose the fight Lan places its all weather Trent class Lifeboat and its smaller inore d-class on immediate launch the ensure Lifeboat headed close in land where the all weather Lifeboat we headed further out to see trying to anticipate where he may have gone in the

Space of time that he had been in the water even further within 10 minutes of launching both lifeboats are in the bay where the kayaker was last seen with all crew scanning the Seas for him searching for somebody in the sea is very difficult during the

Day but when there’s no daylight on its Pitch Black it’s a different C of fish it’s very dark over there yeah it’s just very dark on this general area the darkness really slows our search speed it’s a needle in a Hast stack we can motor past and not even see them the

Chances of a postive outcome are really Slim even with two Crews scouring these Waters there’s no trace of the casualty or his kayak an update for the casualty we believe it is a camouflaged green kayak with um the casualty also possibly wearing a yellow fluorescent jacket over you’re hoping to find anything that

Can help you searching like a piece of clothing it gives you something to work off we didn’t find anything we didn’t find any evidence of the kayak we didn’t find a paddle and at that stage we’re starting to re-evaluate the search process with their search lights and

Torches failing to spot the kayaker the crew take a new approach to illuminating the bay PH down y so what we decided to do was we would launch a couple of our parachute flares um these flares light up a very large area uh for about 40 seconds 3 2

1 you can’t look at it when you’re setting it so your head is down once you’re allowed to lift your head you know that you only have this set period of time before that light’s turned out that’s all let’s just sit here Jack and let’s get a good look around

Everybody you like think you’d see the jacket but with the light you feel like you don’t get enough time you wish they would stay lit and stay up in the sky for longer so was nothing I think we used three players so we lit up a a really large area and again we

Just couldn’t see any evidence of of where the casualty was watching every stage of the search from the shore is the casualty’s wife anxiously waiting for her husband to return to the beach was SC and actually was like movie and you see all lights and people try do

Something and you just like slow and motion you’re watching that and you thinks like it’s nothing to do with me but you know it’s it’s you actually I could thinking about all my life with my husband and start thinking what’s going to happen if he not come

Back as well and I didn’t like that nothing find as such uh we’re just leaving the search SES going into the bay and as the search continues it’s hard to maintain a good positive Outlook given the time that the cas had been in the water hypothermia was the biggest sort of threat as the body’s temperature starts to drop the ability to swim the ability to keep yourself a float just isn’t there then the body just starts to shut down and eventually he could become

Unconscious and that’s not a good place to be without a life Checker having systematically searched the 600 M wide Bay the crews losing hope of finding the kayaker alive mobile this isarn over then a radio update comes in from the Coast Guard so we got reports that a member of

The public could hear shouts for help in the center of the bay just set off okay when we arrived we actually stopped the boat switched the engine off and we just sat and listened for 10 15 seconds couldn’t hear andison nothing we were really concerned at this stage we were about 50 minutes

Into the search which is a long time for anyone to be in the water and that’s when we heard it B coast Guard hello somebody for help further in front of me further out into the center of the bay yeah there somebody yeah yeah yeah let’s go that was the first we had heard the screams and you could hear it from the screams of help it was just as much

Energy as he could build to scream for help um and that’s I knew that he didn’t have much left in him I can’t see him I can just hear him right in front of us somewhere they both Boats were were together we scanned the search light and just in the

Distance about 50 m ahead I saw what looked like small birds floating on the water but as we approached it was the casualty’s feet and hands he was using the iron initiative float to live oh my God it’s floating going there going keep you’re okay M just stay where we are five 4

What’s your name jul was amazing feeling to see him floating and talking to us I couldn’t believe we’ found him and he was still alive help me help me yes okay right can you let go my hand so I and grab you me y Jack help

Me help me sir you’re okay sir we wanted to get him into the boat as quickly as possible I remember asking can you let go of my hand so I can I can lift you out but obviously yeah he wouldn’t right Jack come and give us a hand here under

The on three one two you’re okay my mom you’re okay big S you’re okay there’s a huge sense of relief we’ve got him in the boat we’ve achieved that that goal but it then just shifts into into another process uh and we’ve got to carry out that casually

Care and you know it’s very clear initially that he he’s not in a good State he’s shivering quite violently he’s definitely clearly hypothermic have you got any injuries just cold just we want to ensure that he doesn’t go into that that sort of post rescue shot hey we’re going

To get you warmed up here all right okay sir he’s been fighting so hard for an hour now to stay afloat and there is the potential that he’s in the boat and he just shuts down because he has that sense of relief that I’m okay now the d-class crew raced Julio to the

Beach where his wife Gosha he waiting so there’s some here to speak to you I you okay okay okay are you okay you okay J yeah I didn’t give up I always thinking he’s going to back till end and when I see him on the boat I just knew

Is you here you’re safe now just has to be strong because you have me you have kids and we all love you so much so you can go now you’re already here here a Coast Guard helicopter arrives on scene but unable to land on the small Beach it winches down to

Paramedics they were going to be able to provide additional medical care so it was great to just have that that next level of kly care uh arrive on scene for us we’re ready to transfer them onto the SE now for the ambulance is here okay we’re going to put the end of this

Stretcher and then we got have to cry you the ambulance on the beach okay guys we’ll get organized and then I’ll come back and update you okay put that behind you I’ll move to the other end of his F here I tried to give up for a couple of

Times and let myself go but when I was under the water going down I thought no the back of my mind was something still fighting and says no don’t let yourself go just fight it I know you’re tired but fight it and I swim back again to the surface and I float

Again a keen fisherman Julio would often take his kayak out into Brown’s Bay in search of a catch while his family stayed on Shore that day we were fishing in the kayak I was retrieving the line and when I leaned to the side the kayak capsized and I fell into the

Water I fought maybe for 20 minutes to get back in the kayak but with his clothes now heavy with sea waterer and cold and drained of energy Julio had to make a tough choice I decided to let the kayak go after I couldn’t get back on it and I

Start swim for the beach I was maybe 150 200 y from the beach but it wasn’t bring me any closer from the beach because the current was pushing me back I wasn’t going anywhere I was frustrated really Frustrated I was exhausted really exhausted if I keep swimming I’m going to get too tired so that’s when I decide to float but after an hour in Seas just above 10° Julio was losing strength strength he struggled to keep himself from sinking beneath the waves again I thought I was going to

Drown know my whole life flash in my eyes it’s it’s that feeling and I don’t wish that feeling to anybody I keep thinking about my family and I think I want to see my family again I don’t want to go yet that would actually make me fight for my

Life I didn’t know how I find that strength to shout I knew if the help didn’t come shortly I would run I was running out of time fortunately Julio’s desperate cries for help had now finally been heard I feel these two hands grabbing me on my shoulder push me into the

Boat what can I say it’s like the hand of God I’m so cold you done such a good job J was a relief these people saved my life I was so lucky really really lucky BHA you’re going to be fine I remember Gosha come to the

Boat you’re going to be fine love you so much love happy no she means the world to me and it was hard to think that I’m never going to see her Again as soon as the Coast Guard paramedics had checked Julio over a waiting ambulance crew rushed him to the nearest Hospital in ANM 45 minutes away once the casualty was in the ambulance you kind of just look at each other and go what actually happened there but also

How amazing does it feel to actually have made the difference that man’s life like his two daughters still have him and his wife it just makes every day of every training session worthwhile after treatment for severe hypothermia Julio spent 3 days in in hospital and was then allowed to go home to his Family theye save my life owe everything to that crew I’m thankful for all of them to give me this opportunity to live my life again they’re definitely my heroes they done such a great job my husband get Second Chance was like he’s really lucky so he has time to do something good still

And we can do together of all your shs this one will be at the top of the list of providing someone a chance to go home if we weren’t there he wouldn’t have made it it’s as simple as that that’s the bottom line I have been the coction on the boat

For 27 years and that’s the luckiest man I I have seen 150 Mi Southeast across the Irish Sea on the Esty of the river D in North Wales is the town of Flint Flint’s quite a a small community we’re just a little dot on the North Wales Coast nicely nestled between Angley and Liverpool the desty is over 10 Mi long

And at its widest point spans 5 miles at low tide scores of shifting sand banks are revealed it is a very dangerous river people come down there and they see the tide is out a lot of sand they think they can walk across it’s got a lot of quick sand in ariver

And plus When the tide does turn it comes as fast as somewhere can run our patches forever changing from one shot to the next we don’t know where a sand Bank can appear or whether the channel that we used the night before is still there or whether it’s then moved

We do get lots of things being washed up old boats shopping trolleys you never know what’s going to wash up next for many years there wasn’t a Lifeboat to cover this perilous stretch of Coast but in the late 1950s the community came together to create their very own life-saving service our first

Lifeboat was a private life Bo that was formed after a tragic loss of life in 1956 they could hear this man shouting in the fog they had no boats to be able to get out to him so the poor man lost his life so what happened then is the

People of Flint raised money to buy a rescue boat for nearly 10 years Flint’s fiberglass Lifeboat was kept on the Water by the generosity of local residents I believe they were struggling to keep it afloat with MoneyWise so the ANL came down and took over 1966 when I first joined

Actually Allan is one of the longest serving volunteers at Flint celebrating over 50 years at the station recently still an active crew member he’s now Shore based as Lifeboat operations manager I joined a f Lifeboat crew at the age of 16 I’m now 72 real good man

And boy yeah been that of my life it’s been part of my life my family I’m so be on a diet you know I am well cycling season starts soon the crew does feel like a a second family I’ve been there since I was 18 years old I see Allen as

Uncle Al he’s been there for me and the crew since I was of a young age I love to see them coming through I’ve I’ve seen crew coming in raw recruits to being very very professional crew members I like seeing them coming through I never will not be part of the

Station I’ll always be there hopefully anyway anyway a Saturday morning in mid June temperatures are already hitting 24° I was in the garden with it being nice and sunny cutting the grass when the pages went off when the page goes off you don’t know what you’re going to or what you could

Encounter an unlikely casualty requires help out on the sandbanks 5 miles up the Esty a th whale initially it was quite hard to understand exactly what we were tasked to we’ve been out to live animals before from livestock to a dolphin we’d never been out to the second largest whale in

The world uh we haven’t exactly got a standard operating procedure for that Flint’s d-class inore Lifeboat heads up the river it was like well what are we going to do how can we help help this mammal it was a strange one that actually because we just didn’t know what we were

Expecting all right crew ready yeah bring half an hour after the pages went off the crew arrive on scene alongside the coast guards a specialist team from British divers marine life rescue are battling to keep the stranded whale alive the three crew that were on the boat you’ve got this exciting ment of

That you’re going to going and see an amazing animal that you’ve never seen before you’re all hoping that you can do something to make sure that the animal survives do you want a hand paring water or yes please yeah when we were heading up there I was

Expecting something to be 10 15t long you know a reasonable size but then when we turned up on the bank and saw this C of a thin well that was still 44 long it was amazing fin whales are usually found in deep offshore Waters ranging from the Arctic down to the Gulf of

Mexico once fully grown this young male could grow to over 25 M long and weigh over 80 tons it was sad seeing that this amazing animal was lying on this bank it was great to see the number of people that were there trying to make sure that this

Animal had the best chance of survival The Tide is currently at its lowest and the Sea won’t start covering the sand bank again for at least another 3 hours until then all the team can do is Comfort the whale and keep it cool to avoid it becoming sunburnt and

Dehydrated whenever you took one bucket up full of water there was another two that were empty that you’d bring back down to the water’s edge take back up and it it was constant it was quite sad to to see an animal that was helpless crushing under

The weight of its own body and you couldn’t do anything to help other than just make it feel comfortable it was quite intense uh we didn’t really know how the job was going to turn out hopefully once this tide reached the whale it would refloat um and hopefully SW swim off

After almost 6 hours stranded on the sandbank the young whale finally starts to be covered by the Sea once again there’s a number of times when help him put water on him he find yourself talking to him you know just telling him to come on you’ve got to fight for

This come on come on you trying to give him words of encouragement you want him to survive you want him to swim off yeah let’s try and get you going we were very hopeful every effort was been made to save the whale we were given it the best chance that we could

Um by looking after it and caring for it the rescue teams have now been keeping the whale cool for nearly 2 hours and the tide has almost come up around it but they’re concerned that the near 20 ton creature is suffering from being beached on the

Sandbank with the well lying on one side all the pressure was apparently on one of his lungs when you’re at the head you could see there was two blow holes one for each lung and he was only breathing out of one side um so only one blow hole

Was opening at the time so as the water was coming in we were all on one side trying to stand him upright to try and take the pressure off his other lung we were waiting for the water to go all the way around the whale to get it

To refloat and it did ref flat and then we thought right okay this is it I remember thinking you know any minute now that he’s going to swim off and everything’s going to be okay job done and we’re going to get out it certainly started to move a bit

More there it seemed like there was life still left in there but it it just simply didn’t swim off he was floating he was breathing but he wasn’t making any Headway against the tide and wasn’t heading out towards sea with the whale now fully submerged by

The tide the rescue teams can only stand back and give it space in the hope it’s strong enough to swim off the sandbank by itself it sort of felt like we had unfinished business it’s not normal for the RN Ali to come away from the job knowing that there was

Still a life there to be saved you simply just don’t turn around and say will come back tomorrow in this situation that was the case perhaps overnight the whale would regain some strength and swim off we were literally advised uh we will come back tomorrow and perhaps do the same

Again with their job done for today the Flint crew return to station and await further news on the whales Progress a whale which became stranded on a beach by the destri is believed to have died despite rescue efforts over the last few days by volunteers we were gutted you know we would love to have this this shout to have a happy ending that the whale had

Survived that we were able to preserve the life of such an amazing animal inevitably we all felt like perhaps we could have done more was there anything else that we could have done it was was quite important to remember that we had done everything that we can all the teams that were

There that day even though it was a sad ending um I do to this day I feel really lucky to be able to be that close to that whale made you feel quite humble to be able to be next to that animal and to to experience what I Experienced 200 miles south in Devon is the small fishing port town of briam home to tbay Lifeboat station so brckom can be a very quiet place in the winter season then as soon as sort of summertime hits that’s when we get a lot of holiday makers and it

Can be a very different place last year the tbay cruise launched 116 times making this one of the busiest stations in the UK we have a vast amount of um activity going on within the bay big fishing fleet a lot of water sports we have a lot of speed boats launching

For bricks and painting talking constantly so we have a vast amount of water activities all the year round the town has a proud Maritime history and there’s been a Lifeboat here for nearly 160 years a Lifeboat station is general part of the bricks and Community as a

Youngster I think we all looked up toward the Lifeboat crew we all expected exactly what they was doing they taught us youngsters a lot to be on the water even though it still probably caught out one or two of us while we’re in our youth July a fresh Sunday evening

Southwesterly Winds of over 20 M an hour are whipping up the Seas just offshore we was already down the life boook station um the all weather life boat had a sh 30 odd mes safe of berad so as three of us stayed behind to cover

The in boat we didn’t expect an inore sh but the minute the a went around the end of berri Ed they put the pages off for a boat in distress off a t a speedboat with a father and his teenage daughter on board has lost engine power they’ve drifted onto rocks 4 miles

North of the Lifeboat station there is an urgency in it because the initial shite was boat going ashore you don’t really know what predicament they’re actually in tb’s d-class is placed on immediate launch so the first concerns was are those two people in the boat are they on

The rocks are they in the water we have very limited information it’s quite sheer all the way along there You’ got a quarter mile of Coast which is quite sheer quite Rocky information the harbor Authority from Talking there also launch when we left the brake water it was fairly flat when

We got halfway across the bay it then slowly started to chop up a bit knowing that they were in a speed boat we knew these guys were going to be in uh in a bit of trouble over the side of bay being blown in against the Rocks

If they gone ashore it wouldn’t been long before their boat have been held and sung with them in it so it’s certainly a choice of getting there pretty sharpish there some people on Imperial ledge but I can’t see any boats at the moment okay yeah 12 minutes after launching the

Crew approached the speedboats last reported position when we first got on scene we saw the uh TBO Harbor Metro boat was sitting there and he was pointing towards the Gully where the uh where the speed boat had gone into it’s just in between the two Rocks right in between the two rocks the speedboats caught in a narrow Gully between two large rocks with nearly 3 hours until low tide the crew feel there may be just enough water for them to come in from The Far Side I knew that sometimes on the tide

If the tide was right it was a lot calmer around the other side of the rock so we tried approaching it from the back of the rock to start with there’s a rock directly on the entrance to where they are yeah so we’re going to have to go

Around the other side if we can’t they’ve gone in from the other side oh yeah they there’s loads of rocks here on your bow when we got around the other side the tide was down further than what we thought so we had no choice but to go

In where the water was washing in with the waters too shallow on the other side the only way the crew will be able to safely navigate into the casualties is from this easterly approach we came back around and saw them sitting on the Rocks holding tightly to the sweed right they’ve

Definitely gone in from this way so we knew that there was no people in the water so it gave us a bit of time to sort of work out the best way of getting them off of the rock the challenge for the crew now is that this side of the

Rocks is more exposed to the strong winds and the large rolling swells coming in there’s no water in there I’m not worried about the boat it’s just them really I’m more concerned about this swell behind us mate we wanted to sort of sit back and just look how the

Swell was coming in but it sort of tended to just roll in there was no sort of open open break to get in there there looks plenty of water here mate where they initially been blown into it’s not just a sea State it’s it’s everything around here it’s rocks

Underneath you it’s rocks either side of here so you got to be quite on the look out as you’re going in we set the where they are yeah we didn’t want to spend too much time in there we just wanted to get them off and get back out again and then

We’ll sort the boat out afterwards we going to end to get them off get them off just get them off get them off off to leave the boat yeah there plenty of water here mate get them off Qui right we’re going to put the B on if you step

On to us leave the boat he was very adamant that his boat wanted to to come with him give some power no we’re not worried about the boat but we wanted to get them on board first priority was them hang on take my hand you do have to be quite firm sometimes because

Sometimes people don’t know the actual danger that they’re in hang on am I going to go put your foot on here come here come here get on give me your hand sit down okay you don’t want to be in there too long so you want to be in and you

Want to be out you don’t want to be after the mukang going in and then coming back out and going back in again come in here come on get your knee on here hold my hand On when you get in on your knees straight back come back don’t anytime at all we could have come off that rock on a wave and it is quite tense it’s getting them on telling them where to sit making sure they’re safe you guys all right yeah we man get him on board

Us as safe as easy as we could shocked but unharmed the two casualties are rushed back to shore the sound of the boat hitting the rocks it it’s horrific it made you think if that was you as a body in the water getting hit against those rocks like

That how would you survive that just the day before Paul had purchased the 150 horsepower 6-seater speedboat just Breeze secondhand and decided to take it for a spin with his daughter kessie I think kessie was a little bit apprehensive um because um she knows I’m a little bit of a a speed

Freak the first 5 minutes went perfect like a dream we were both having a great time the sun was really bright it was really like it was a nice day we were enjoying it already and then it all seemed to go down hill really quickly we came out of the harbor

Entrance and it became apparent that the water wasn’t quite as calm as we’d like it to have been it was quite choppy and the wind was blowing and there was a loud bang and that was it it the whole engine just stopped it was a heart stopping moment

When you realize you’ve got no engine no power and there’s a moment when you have no idea what you’re going to do you’re just panicking I said to kessie we’re we’re in trouble it wasn’t until Dad got panicked about the fact that the boat had stopped working that I realized that we were

Drifting quite a lot in towards just like the cliffs and then the Rocks seem to get closer and closer my biggest fear would have been that something happened to cessie I I don’t know how I would would have coped I was terrified that I got her

Into this situation and I was not able to get her out of it so I immediately hit 999 but with every passing minute the waves were pushing the stricken speedboat further into the narrow Rocky Gully it became more like almost life and death when it got to a point where

We thought there was no way of getting out of this boat safely we had nowhere to go that’s when I met made the decision as we came up to the Rock to get cessie off and I managed to scramble out of the boat onto the rock wither and

Sat there and then a little bit of the fear a little bit of the tension started to drop I felt safer on the rugs than in the boat but I still didn’t feel that safe I think probably dad was calmer half an hour after Paul raised the alarm the Lifeboat arrived at the

If you step on to us leave the boat power with hindsight now I would have I should have just left the boat left it left it alone but for some reason I I wanted to try and make it a a full house everyone safe and save the

Boat all at the same time with Paul and kessie now safely in the declass the harbor Authority took over the recovery of their damaged boat have either have you been in the water at all no no within minutes both they and their new speedboat were brought back into the safety of T

Harbor at the end of the day it did feel like a good job well done we got them out of trouble out of danger there was a few bits of damage to their boat but it can be sorted I dare spin you around a minute it’s given me a whole new respect

For how powerful the sea is and how quickly a situation can escalate all right hey man I think the situation in general could have been worse if they had ended up in the rocks and the boat had sunk they would have ended up in the water I don’t know which way would have

Gone yeah they definitely Sav life we I don’t think we would have got into Shore with the waves like that without anyone else helping us they saved my life there’s no doubt we would have been in serious serious trouble if they weren’t around I didn’t respect the sea enough um and

It it bit me and I had to call on them to come and get me and basically put their lives on the line and put them at risk massive thank you and uh and a huge apology for being an idiot 9 months after being rescued Paul is returning to the spot

Where he and were forced onto the rocks in their new speedboat the boat was toast Salvage nothing left it it had taken huge chunks out of it smashed the engine and coming here today and seeing it at low tide with all the jagged rocks that were beneath the surface it’s scary to look

At that I feel like we were quite lucky in that that particular day so I won’t be going on a boat again for a while I think I have to say I’ve Not I’ve been out on the water since that I’ll be making sure that everything’s in place next time SE conditions weather

Reports absolutely everything will be in in place before I venture Out and in Lan Julio and gsha are still keen on fishing just not from a kayak for now I haven’t been in the kayak since but I’m expecting to go in the kayak this summer time conquer your fears I guess I’m going to be scared but I let him go I’m

Not going toop I know for a fact the first time I will go you’ll be very apprehensive you know but this time I’m going to fish it safer way I’m going to buy stabilizers for it and definitely definitely with a vest on cuz I know if

I fall in the water again that vest might save my life your head face for the the people it’s they drowning it just making sure they get back to the loved ones no one wants to hear a Mayday out and see I mean it is basically life or

Death I actually thought I’m going to die today you’re stepping onto a sinking boat normally you want to be stepping away from a sinking Boat