The day I got out of my depth at sea – and there was no RNLI
Abbie Wightwick recalls how she once came close to drowning – and gives thanks for the work done by volunteers and lifeguards who have saved the lives of so many people who got into trouble in the water
YEARS ago when I was in my 20s I went on holiday to the Pacific coast of Ecuador. It was surfing territory and although I didn’t surf I grew up swimming in the sea, loved being in the ocean and there was the added thrill of massive rollers which I thought I could cope with, provided I was in my depth. Big mistake. It only takes seconds in a risky sea for the safety of being able to touch the bottom with your feet to hurtle at speed to being dangerously out of your depth.
Even if you are just inches from the elusive water that is within your depth, the current and tide can drag you out with alarming ferocity. Safety becomes a life-threatening situation before you have time to think about it.
This is what happened to me. One moment I was enjoying body surfing into shore, the next I was watching as the beach raced further and further away.
One minute it was a wide stretch of sand from where I could hear the happy sound of voices and the next it was a thin ribbon of yellow accompanied only by the ominous, unthinking boom of the waves.
I remember looking at a house on the shore and see it shrink smaller and smaller each time I closed my eyes and took a breath before a wave crashed over my head.
And the waves really were crashing. The noise was deafening and allconsuming.
They were sucking me up on a curve before flinging me down hard on to the ocean floor. I knew I barely had time to grab breath before the next one came with bone-rattling force.
I had done some life-saving and water safety skills, but that was many years before. My mind raced with thoughts of going out on the current and finding another one to come back in on. But mostly I tried to remember it was vital to keep calm.
Panicking drains your energy and a racing heart and short breath was the last thing I needed. In a short moment of panic I felt my legs going to jelly and knew I had to get a grip to have the strength to keep afloat. I wasn’t even sure how long this had been going on.
What made the situation worse was that there were no lifeguards and there was no lifeboat station.
This was a remote beach beside a remote village where some of the locals had told me they didn’t teach their children to swim because the sea was so dangerous.
At the very end, too far away, was a group of surfers who had helped a woman in difficulty the day before. But she had been wise enough to swim near to them.
They couldn’t see me, or if they could, it would be too far for them to reach me in time.
Summoning up courage I was losing fast, I decided to swim the fastest and strongest I could to shore and keep taking lungfuls of air when I could before being flung downwards by waves that cast a shadow before gobbling me up.
There were a few hairy moments when the waves were so big the next one came before I could grab a breath. Eventually, more by luck than anything else, there was a slight break in the waves and I did the fastest front crawl I have done before or since to the shore.
I was so terrified I carried on pumping away even when I was well within safe depth. Lying on the sand, I coughed up salt water and realised I had been incredibly stupid. I had risked my life because I hadn’t respected the water.
The result of this was that I went from being very confident in the sea to being overly cautious. Last week, in the very hot weather, I went to Rest Bay. I heard a teenager announcing she couldn’t swim as she ran into the water, desperate to cool down. I didn’t know her and she must have thought I was mad when I told her: “Then don’t go in past your waist.”
In 2015 20 people died in the water off the Welsh coast.
Last year in Wales there was an 11% increase in the number of RNLI lifeboat launches, with crews going to sea on rescue callouts 1,175 times.
The number of people rescued was also up 13%, to 1,162, with a total of 73 lives saved.
Penarth RNLI, my local station, which recently had a successful £52,000 fundraising appeal for a new D-class lifeboat, rescued more people than any other station across Wales, at 109.
Seven of those were classed as lives saved. Their number of launches also rose significantly to 74, compared with 46 in 2015.
All beaches will again have a lifeguard service this summer and lifeguards will be on duty at Whitmore Bay on Barry Island, Trecco Bay and Coney beach in Porthcawl, Aberavon beach in Port Talbot, Three Cliffs Bay on Gower, Tenby South beach and Whitesands beach in Pembrokeshire.
Whenever I go to the beach I am always thankful for our RNLI volunteers and our lifeguards.