‘You never know what you are going to find until you get there’

In the fourth of our occasional series celebrating the work of the Westcountry’s maritime rescue services, Ben Bryant visits the crew at St Agnes.

Pictures by Nigel Millard

St Agnes is a small village on the Cornish coast, some 10 miles west of Newquay. A small lifeboat station operating a D-Class inflatable lifeboat, it had around 20 shouts last year and has already surpassed that this year.

The area it has responsibility for encompasses everything the coast of Cornwall is renowned for: huge sea cliffs, coastal paths, sweeping bays with vast sandy beaches, hidden coves, caves and rocky outcrops.

In any given summer, tourists flock to the county to enjoy all it has to offer, including the coast. With the extraordinary weather experienced over the summer of 2108, sea temperatures reached their highest recorded for many decades and the number of people visiting Cornwall rocketed.

Gavin Forehead, Helm of St Agnes Lifeboat, has been with the RNLI for the better part of 20 years and knows the area, and its dangers, intimately.

“We usually get a lot of tidal cut-offs and people stuck on cliffs and so on,” he explained. But this year we’ve been busier than ever, which seems to be the case for all the stations in Cornwall, and a lot of the shouts we’ve had have been serious ones.”

Despite some very high profile advertising campaigns by the RNLI encouraging people to “respect the water” and to “float to live” and “don’t drink and drown” the lifeboat stations around the UK have been busier than ever.

“The weather was great, the numbers visiting this year were huge and I think the public’s awareness of the dangers of the sea have increased hugely because of work the RNLI have been doing with their adverts,” said Gavin. “At the end of the day though, more and more people are going in the sea. Things like wetsuits, kayaks, dinghies, paddle boards... they’re so much more readily available and much more affordable too. Ten years ago that wasn’t so much the case but now it seems nearly every car has something strapped to its roof.”

Looks can be deceptive, however, and no amount of advertising will ever make everybody adequately aware of just how much, and how quickly, the sea conditions can change. What might be applicable on one coastline can be totally different on another. Currents, tides and waves can all behave differently at different stages of the tidal cycle and can be influenced by a multitude of factors, including the wind strength and direction, beach angle and the shape of the coast line. Even a short drive from the north to the south coast of Cornwall can see two totally different sea states.

In terms of the peculiarities of his local area, Gavin explains what he believes people need to understand.

“The biggest thing I think that people need to be aware of, especially here on the north coast, is when there is a big, heavy swell running,” he said. “People need to be more aware of how the sea is going to change. Here, at St Agnes it, can be like a mill pond in the morning and by early afternoon there can be six-foot waves.”

Already this year the volunteers that man the St Agnes lifeboat have had to contend with a diverse array of shouts, including members of the public cut off by rising tides, a paraglider who had crashed into the sea, and a serious spinal injury sustained by a member of a coasteering group.

Responding to a shout isn’t always as simple as it sounds, as Gavin explains.

“You never know what you’re going to find until you get there,” he said. “What you’re told and what’s actually happening can be worlds apart depending on who has phoned the emergency services. You might have a tourist phone something in and say it’s not that serious but when you get on scene you find it’s the complete opposite. That said, it happens the other way round too.”

As Helm, it is Gavin’s responsibility to make snap decisions that could be crucial to the outcome of the shout. In a matter of minutes he has to determine the nature of the shout, where he’s going, what crew and equipment might be needed, what the weather and tides are doing and, crucially, he has to think of the safety of his crew.

Even launching at St Agnes is not without difficulties.

“It’s a very tricky place to launch at high tide,” explains Gavin. “The shape of the cove, because it narrows, pushes the sea up and can give big waves. So to launch in to that is incredibly difficult. At those times we have to launch at 90 degrees to the surf and then turn out through it and we have to get that right otherwise it’s not good.”

As with every lifeboat crew, hours and hours of practice ensure that they’re ready to meet the challenges thrown down by nature.

“We train every week, 52 weeks of the year, to make sure we’re ready for any shout that comes in,” says Gavin. “It can take a lot out of your personal life, like having a shout on Christmas Day a few years ago, and your work life.”

The obvious question, then, is why does he do it? St Agnes Lifeboat helm Gavin Forehead briefs his crew. Right: Gavin says the beach on Cornwall’s north coast is ‘a very tricky place to launch at high tide’

“It’s a brilliant thing to do for your community, that chance to put something back through all those things you’ve learnt from growing up with the sea,” he says. “There are so many people involved with the sea in different ways with their work or hobbies and to be able to have a positive impact by using the knowledge you’ve gained about the sea is just brilliant.”

And when all that training, practice, preparation and personal sacrifice pays off ? The smile that accompanies Gavin’s answer speaks volumes.

“There’s nothing like it, it’s a real buzz. There’s a great feeling when a shout’s gone well and you’ve been able to help someone, or even save their life, and that’s why we do it.”

We train every week, 52 weeks of the year, to make sure we’re ready