Four shouts in three days during open weekend for Holyhead RNLI volunteers
Holyhead RNLI lifeboat volunteers have had a busy period with four shouts in three days across the station's annual open weekend.
The first call-out came at 10.20am on Friday (29 July) when the all-weather lifeboat was launched after debris was spotted by passing yacht about 10 miles south west of South Stack.
On arrival the crew found an old raft made of two bodyboards and two pallets which appeared had been drifting for some time.
The crew retrieved it from the water to prevent the risk of it becoming a navigational hazard and returned it to shore, arriving back on station at 12.30pm.
Then later on Friday at 7.45pm the station's inshore lifeboat was requested to launch by HM Coastguard to a person in distress who was in the water having fallen out of his kayak in Penrhos Bay. Before arrival the teenager managed to make his own way back to shore and his kayak made to shore with onshore breeze. Apart from tiredness and after having taken on some water, he was was able to return home well. The Coastguard Recuse Team recovered his kayak on the shore.
The volunteer lifeboat crew returned to shore at 8.30pm.
On Saturday (30 July) - the first day of Holyhead RNLI's annual two-day open weekend - both of Holyhead RNLI's lifeboats launched at 1.54pm to report of a fallen climber at the Gogarth Bay cliffs with leg injury.
With the Coastguard Rescue Team at the top of the cliffs the Holyhead RNLI inshore lifeboat crew were first on scene and on arrival they found a woman had fallen aorund 30ft and suffered a severe pelvic injury having fallen onto rocks.
Due to the swells and rapidly incoming tide the inshore lifeboat crew needed to evacuate the woman so stabilised her and brought her aboard the lifeboat. With sea state unsuitable for a transfer to the Coastguard Search and Rescue helicopter, the 26-year-old woman was transferred onto the all-weather lifeboat. She was treated by lifeboat crew and a helicopter winchman who landed on deck, before being winched to the helicopter and airlifted to hospital.
The lifeboats returned to station at 3.30pm.
Then on Sunday (31 July) the all-weather lifeboat was launched again to an 18ft vessel with engine failure drifting towards the Skerries and unable to return to shore without assistance. The lifeboat crew brought the boat, which had two men and a dog on board, under tow and returned it safely to Holyhead. At one point during the tow the casualty vessel began taking on some water so the inshore lifeboat was launched to assist.
Notes to editors:
For more information please contact Chris Cousens, RNLI Press Officer, Wales and West, on 07748 265496 or 01745 585162 or by email on [email protected].
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The RNLI charity saves lives at sea. Its volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland coasts. The RNLI operates 238 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland and more than 240 lifeguard units on beaches around the UK and Channel Islands. The RNLI is independent of Coastguard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 146,000 lives.
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