Safety
In the face of nature’s fury
Driving rain, squally conditions. All in a night’s work for Newhaven lifeboat crew.
Half past midnight. Lewis Arnold, Coxswain at Newhaven Lifeboat Station, was at home when his pager went off. ‘The weather was horrendous. Howling wind and sideways rain.’
Lewis headed to the station. As he made his way, he used the RNLI’s pager app to see who was available and choose his crew. ‘Picking the crew is tough as you always get those who are sad that they haven’t been out for ages. It’s the worst part of the job. I didn’t know what the shout was at this point, so I chose a mix of trainees and experienced crew.’
Among Lewis’s six crew members were three trainees, including Claire Townsend and Sam Smith. ‘Weather was blowing a huge storm. Absolutely dreadful,’ says Sam. ‘I’d been up late watching the storm because it was so violent.’
The launching authority provided the crew with more details as they arrived. Two people onboard a yacht had made an urgent call for help. They’d lost power and were taking on water. Their exact location was unknown, but they were reported to be near Cuckmere Haven. They were in desperate need of help.
Biblical conditions
The crew launched Newhaven’s Severn class lifeboat David and Elizabeth Acland. As soon as they left the shelter of the harbour, the full force of the storm hit the lifeboat. ‘It was a biblical thunderstorm,’ says Lewis. ‘Torrential rain, high winds. 45–50 knots of wind the whole way.’
The crew prepared the search equipment – image intensifiers and searchlights. Sam was sent up to the upper steering position to start the search.
‘It was the most spectacular weather that I’ve been out in,’ says Sam. ‘It was pitch black, so you couldn’t see the waves, only feel them as you go over. Now and then, lightning would hit the sea and illuminate the whole area around us. It’s a really dramatic coastline with big cliffs, rocky outfalls. When the lightning hit the sea, it was absolutely spectacular.’
The lightning proved vital. The searchlights were borderline useless – conditions so intense, all they illuminated were the raindrops.
‘Daniel the navigator got us in as close as we could to the search area, to see if we could find the vessel,’ says Lewis. ‘Due to it being pitch black, I couldn’t see any of the coastline at all. Normally you get a shadow or some idea of where you are, but this time I couldn’t see anything apart from when the lightning struck. I said to Daniel: “You stay in the wheelhouse and make sure we’ve got plenty of water around us.”’
Third time lucky
The crew finally spotted the boat being bounced by the waves. Lewis describes the scene: ‘It had deployed its anchor, but looked like it was on a shoestring. We didn’t have long and time was of the essence to get this boat to safety.’
With conditions too intense to launch the Y-boat (small inflatable boat) and, with the depth of water decreasing all the time, it was decided that a tow was the best option. Claire recalls: ‘I started preparing the lines, faking out the tow rope on the aft deck, making sure the heaving lines were coiled in a way they could be thrown. It was really quite bumpy and the casualty vessel mast was swaying quite violently. We knew getting the line across wouldn’t be the easiest task.’
Having moved to the upper steering position, Lewis manoeuvred the lifeboat as close as he could to the casualty vessel. The crew made two attempts to throw a heaving line across, but the wind sent the ropes spiralling away into darkness. At that moment, the navigation equipment briefly failed, so the crew didn’t have any depth reading. Lewis pulled the boat clear.
Lewis moved the lifeboat in again. ‘The wind had really whipped up,’ says Claire. ‘The rain was coming down in sheets, with lots of movement between the two boats.’
This time Sam threw the heaving line across to the boat where it was caught by one of the casualties onboard. There was no radio, so the crew had to shout across instructions. Thankfully, the man on deck was able to attach the tow rope.Now secured, the lifeboat pulled the yacht out into deeper water.
‘You don't feel like a hero’
‘I was holding one of the small searchlights over the tow rope, so we could make sure not too much was going in the water,’ says Claire. ‘By then we were feeling really cold. Everyone was soaking wet.’
The decision was made to tow the boat towards Eastbourne, into the shelter of the bay. Lewis explains: ‘The weather and the sea state made it difficult to go back to Newhaven and high risk for casualties and crew, so we headed down sea.’
The conditions were taking their toll on the crew. ‘Some of us had been at work all day, been in bed for an hour and then paged,’ says Sam. ‘It was a great relief that Eastbourne crew came out to do the final bit.’
Eastbourne lifeboat crew launched the Trent class Henry Heys Duckworth to tow the casualty the final leg into harbour. The casualty now in their safe hands, Newhaven lifeboat headed for home.
The crew arrived back at the lifeboat station just under 6 hours after they launched. Time for a debrief. ‘We talked about what went well, what didn’t go so well,’ says Lewis. ‘It’s not easy when its rough and its dark. I told them: “You know what guys, you did a good job today”.’
‘It’s the most dramatic coastal rescue I’ve been involved in,’ reflects Sam. ‘There was added time pressure because of the rocks. If we didn’t get the line on the boat, then the boat and the crew would have been at the mercy of the conditions. It was up to us to make sure that didn’t happen. It’s truly a huge privilege to be a part of the crew making a real difference in someone’s darkest hour like we did that night.’
‘With the conditions as they were, it was likely they would have ended up in the sea,’ says Claire. ‘It’s a very humbling thing to save lives. At the time it’s really scary. You don’t feel like a hero, you just do your best. It’s a nice feeling when it pays off.’
Safety tips
One of the major challenges of this rescue was locating the casualty. ‘If they had a VHF radio, we could have used a direction finder,’ says Lewis. ‘With just a mobile phone, the Coastguard can get in touch, but we can’t use it to locate them ourselves.’
Passage planning is vital for ensuring a safe trip too. Always check the weather forecast when you plan to go out on the water so you don’t get caught out by the conditions. There’s no shame in waiting for the storm to pass before heading off.
All-weather training
The crew at Newhaven are able to train in stormy conditions thanks to their Severn class being berthed in the water. Launching into a storm adds a level of complexity that makes it more difficult to justify a tractor or slipway launch. Being out on the water in bad weather is great preparation for a shout like this.
‘We train in rough weather because it makes the trainees a lot more confident in their own abilities,’ says Lewis. ‘They learn to have more trust in the rest of the crew and the boat because they are out using it.’
Sam agrees: ‘The more time I spend on the boat in difficult conditions, the more confident I get. You learn to be resilient in all sorts of weather.’
The launch and training is only possible thanks to your kind support. It turns trainees like Sam and Claire into lifesavers.
Categories
You may also enjoy the following
Safety
Safety
Safety