Lifesaving missions for RNLI crews
AFAMILY of five were rescued from a potentially dangerous situation off the North Devon coast.
Rescue crews responded to two major incidents at sea off North Devon during the Easter weekend – potentially saving six lives in total.
On Sunday, in the second major shout of the weekend, they responded to a family of five, with two children on board, whose vessel had broken down with fuel problems.
The call came in at 8.20am on Easter Sunday morning as the crew were paged with reports of three adults and two children on board a small rib launched from Churchfields slip in Appledore. They broke down off Crowe Point, near Braunton, with no radio.
They phoned for help to the coastguard providing their ‘what3words’ location. The RNLI explained that with an easterly wind and an ebbing tide, the rib was rapidly washed out towards the river mouth and, despite it taking only five minutes from the lifeboat leaving the boat house to arriving on scene the boat was already out of control over South Gut in four to six feet breaking waves.
“The lifeboat had one chance to pick them up before they capsized, a ‘Snatch and Grab’ scenario,” the RNLI said. “The tow rope was ready, the lifeboat got in position, took a gap in the surf, the crew threw the tow and dragged them out.”
Helm Simon McCarthy said: “With three trainee helms as crew, a good brief and all the intensive training that each had undertaken over the last few months, this rescue was as slick and quick as you can get it. Within 30-60 seconds the rib would have been turned over by the surf and the outcome could have been very nasty.”
Appledore RNLI is reminding people using boats, often for the first time in the season, to please check their fuel. Petrol can deteriorate over the winter causing non-starting or breakdowns.
On Friday a casualty at sea off North Devon was saved as they suffered a seizure, had no way to give emergency services a location – and then their yacht caught fire.
Appledore RNLI shared the details of the rescue in a Facebook post urging people to always have a way to call for help.
It said that just after midnight on Easter Friday, April 15, the coastguard notified Appledore RNLI about a 32ft yacht in difficulty eight miles west of Hartland, with one person on board, but no VHF radio or GPS so no exact location was available.
“The casualty had phoned 999 for help having had a suspected seizure,” they said. “No further communication between the coastguard and casualty was possible. The allweather lifeboat was launched and as it made its way around Hartland a faint radar reading was picked up about two miles North West of Hartland Point.”
The lifeboat then went to investigate and found it was the reported casualty vessel drifting on the tide with only an anchor light on. No sails were up and no engine was running. Two crew members were put on board where they found the casualty in “a very poorly condition” in the cockpit. The two first aiders put on board requested a helicopter to airlift the casualty to hospital.
The post continued: “The lifeboat crew on board the yacht suddenly saw flames and smoke coming from the engine compartment.”
The fire was extinguished and the casualty airlifted to hospital.
The yacht was towed to Appledore at around 7am.