Extensive sea search for Poole and Mudeford volunteers
A full scale sea search of Poole Bay took place in the early hours with three lifeboats from Poole and Mudeford, the helicopter Whiskey 175 scanning the Bay from above and coastguards on the shoreline.
Poole Atlantic Lifeboat launched initially at 22.20 (Tuesday October 31st) to a report of a possible person or persons in the water after a vessel was found washed up on the shore at Southbourne followed with a report of a yacht overdue.
The Atlantic began search patterns from the entrance of the harbour to Christchurch head working in unison with the other agencies and Mudeford lIfeboat crew.
Poole's D'class lifeboat launched just before 23.00 and conducted a close shoreline search, from the entrance of the harbour up to Mudeford run.
The search continued into the early hours of the morning, with nothing untoward found, Solent coastguard stood the Poole lifeboat crew down at 03.30, after some 5 hours at sea searching intensively.
When the lifeboats arrived back at station other volunteer crew had stayed to meet them back at the station taking over the vessel for refuelling and making warm drinks for the returning crews, the lifeboat was ready for service by 04.30.
Conditions out in the bay were glassy calm, it was a pitch black night..
Volunteer helmsman Jonathan Clark said:
'The information that came through was that there may have been a person or people in the water due to how the vessel was found, along with Mudeford we thoroughly searched a large area and were at sea for a long time, working alongside the other agencies. Its a mystery how the vessel came to be ashore and this will be further investigated by the coastguard'.
This is the third service in darkness in the past five days for the busy volunteers at Poole.
RNLI media contacts
For more information please telephone Anne-Marie Clark, RNLI Volunteer Lifeboat Press Officer on 07887 855073 - [email protected] or Dave Riley, Deputy Lifeboat Press Officer on 07795 015042 - [email protected] or contact RNLI Public Relations on 01202 336789
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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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