Rescued, man adrift a mile out to sea on a TOY dinghy
‘Wearing a hoodie and shorts’
THIS toy dinghy is smaller than a bath and certainly not made to carry adults at sea. But apparently oblivious of the risks he faced, a grown-up beachgoer squeezed himself into the tiny vessel and swiftly found himself adrift a mile out on the North Sea.
Happily, he was rescued but lifeboat staff said that he was lucky to be alive.
The man, believed to be in his 30s, was on the beach at Redcar, Teesside, with friends when he took the dinghy into the water an hour and a half before sunset on Monday.
The wind and tide rapidly carried him out and by the time his friends rang 999 to call the coastguard around 7.30pm, he was heading towards an offshore wind farm.
An RNLI crew found the man, wearing a soaking wet hoodie and shorts, trying in vain to paddle against the wind and tidal currents with a pair of tiny plastic oars. His feet were dangling over the edge of his toy vessel, which was partly filled with seawater.
The RNLI said that if he had entered the water, which is around 12-15C (54-59F) at this time of year, he could have suffered hypothermia.
A spokesman added that if the alarm had not been raised the crew ‘could well have been bringing back a dead body’.
However, the man appeared to be ‘unaware of his predicament’ and how serious the situation was when rescuers got to him.
He was taken on board the lifeboat and returned to the beach, where a coastguard team gave him ‘safety advice’.
Dave Cocks, of Redcar RNLI, said: ‘This is a good example of the types of incident we repeatedly warn people about. It was a reasonably pleasant evening but the wind and tide were a recipe for this to happen.’
He added: ‘We believe the man was in his 30s. He was dressed in only a hoodie and shorts, and he didn’t even fit in the toy dinghy. If the alarm hadn’t been raised there was every likelihood he’d have drifted out of sight of land.
‘He’s very lucky the alarm was raised and he was lucky it wasn’t in the dark.
‘He had a pair of plastic oars to go with the inflatable boat – the kind you find at a corner store for use in a swimming pool. That type of craft is not suitable for the North Sea. He’s learnt his lesson.’
Around 190 people lose their lives off the UK and Irish coasts each year.