Volunteers from Trearddur Bay RNLI rescue family of six off Llanddwyn Island.
The family which included an elderly couple and two children were onboard their 15 foot speedboat which had broken down and was taking on water after passing over the Caernarfon bar yesterday afternoon.
A distress call was made to the Coastguard who immediately tasked Trearddur Bay’s Atlantic 85 to assist. The Charity’s boat was on scene shortly after and following an assessment of the situation decided it would be best to get the family ashore at Newborough beach a short distance away, whilst a crew member stayed onboard the Maxum speedboat.
The children and their father were in wetsuits so were able to wade ashore from the RNLI boat however the elderly couple, one who was quite cold and one who couldn’t swim, were carried by a crew member and a member of the Coastguard team that met them at the beach. The children’s mother was carried ashore by their father and all were taken back to their car by the Coastguard team. The volunteers then managed to get the speedboat running again and it was escorted by the Atlantic 85 back to Trearddur Bay where it was later collected.
Helmsman Leigh McCann said, ‘we decided to get them ashore as some of them had appeared quite cold and the father of the children was the only one who could collect the boat from Trearddur Bay’. He added, ‘one of our other Helmsman, Lee Duncan, had a similar boat so was quite happy to take it back for them which seemed to be the most sensible option in the circumstances’.
It appears the boat had taken on water passing over the Caernarfon Bar which can be a tricky stretch of water even on a calm day, Leigh later said, ‘it’s easy to get caught out but they all had lifejackets on and had a means of contacting help, they’d done the right thing’.
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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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