Busy day and night for Poole volunteers with three calls

The 17 ft. fishing boat with two people and a dog on-board were fishing at Creekmoor Lake in the Holes Bay area, when they became entangled, they had dropped their anchor, but it was not holding.

Conditions in Holes Bay were blustery with a brisk South Westerly wind. The inshore lifeboat was swiftly on scene and a crew member entered the water to untangle the rope that was wrapped around the propeller, it appeared that the rope was fixed to the bottom somehow, so the volunteer cleared the rope and cut it away, freeing the vessel.

The vessel was happy to continue on its way, the lifeboat escorted for a short while to make sure that everything was working okay, it seemed that it was, so the lifeboat returned back to station and after refuelling was ready for service by 12.40pm.

Then at 6.30pm Poole Lifeboat was launched to assist a kite surfer who was reported to have been tangled up in fishing gear off Branksome Dene Chine. A report had come through that the kite surfer had got into difficulty, the lifeboat was quickly on-scene and found that kite surfer had made his way ashore ditching his equipment, his gear was tangled up in what appeared to be a net. Conditions were very choppy, with breaking seas and a South Westerly 4-5.

The lifeboat volunteers, checked that the kite surfer was okay and then cut his equipment free and brought back to shore. The Kite surfer was happy to be reunited with his equipment and as all was well the lifeboat returned back to station. After refuelling the lifeboat was ready for service by 8pm

At 10.45pm Poole lifeboat volunteers were tasked again by UK coastguard as a report of red flares seen my numerous informants over Poole Bay.

The Poole volunteers searched from the entrance of Poole Harbour, starting from East Looe, going across Poole Bay down to Hengistbury Head, along the shore and extending out. Swanage all weather lifeboat was tasked bit later to extend the search area further off to sea.

Both lifeboats conducted search patterns, the 999 calls were very credible, Southbourne Coastguards were also scouring the shoreline.

Then the crews saw a flare for themselves go up whilst they were searching. The Poole and Swanage lifeboats plotted the bearing and put the location inshore at Boscombe pier.
After an extensive and thorough search, where nothing untoward was found, it has to presume that this was a hoax, so the UK Coastguards stood all assets down.

Poole lifeboat returned back to station, after refuelling was ready for service at 03.45am and the weary volunteers returned home to their beds to catch a couple of hours of sleep before they go to work.

Poole Lifeboat volunteer Jonathan Clark said;
‘Todays shouts just show how diverse our patch is and the various types of callouts we have had over the past few weeks highlight how busy this stretch of water is. It’s a huge commitment from all at the lifeboat station to sustain the call outs that we do, facilitated it has to be said by the support of our families and employers that allow us to be there, 24/7, for when people really do need us ‘.

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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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