Three calls in one day for the Lymington crew.
On 31 May, Lymington’s Atlantic 85 inshore lifeboat B-882 David Bradley was tasked to assist a yacht that had run aground on the Shingles Bank near the Needles.
The 40ft yacht had run aground earlier in the day, but given the tide and weather conditions the casualty vessel was unable to be re-floated for a few hours. Yarmouth RNLI requested the support of Lymington RNLI at 11.16am and the Lymington lifeboat was quickly on scene.
The helm Phil Baker and the crew members were able to work closely with the casualty vessel to establish a tow once the tide was high enough, which allowed the yacht to be pulled clear of the bank.
The skipper of the casualty vessel checked there was no evidence of water ingress and the yacht proceeded on their way.
The lifeboat returned to the station and was prepared again for service and was ready at 1.15pm.
At 6.12pm later that day the pagers sounded for a second time, to reports of a broken down jet ski off the Needles with 2 people on board. The lifeboat was swift to launch under the helm of Greg Pachany. The weather conditions were calm with good visibility.
On arrival at the Needles there was no sight of the jet ski or the people on board. Further communication with the Coastguard identified a different location, but again nothing was found. The lifeboat was eventually stood down once the Coastguard had established that the jet ski and people onboard had been picked up by a passing vessel and taken to Christchurch.
The lifeboat returned to the station and was prepared ready again for service at 8.15pm. This was the first shout for new crew member Ed Wallrock.
At 10.14pm the voluntary crew were paged for a third time that day by HM Coastguard, to assist two jet skis with three people on board. One broken down taking on water and under tow by the other jet ski. Initial position given was to the west of Lymington, possibly off Pennington Marshes. The lifeboat launched under the helm of Declan O’Riordan, who was on his first shout since qualifying as helm. On arrival the crew found nothing and checked various targets in the area again failed to locate the casualty vessels.
The lifeboat managed to establish contact with the casualties via their mobile phones and was able to estimate their position to be east of the Lymington River close to Park Shore. The lifeboat commenced a search east from the Lymington River and eventually found the casualties near Beaulieu Spit.
On arrival one of the jet skis was semi-submerged. The lifeboat took the three casualties on boat and administered some basic casualty care. The casualties were taken back to Lymington and were handed over to the care of the shore crew and Lymington Coastguard Rescue Team.
As the drifting jet skis were lightly to cause a hazard to navigation the decision was made to recover them to shore. The lifeboat proceeded back to the location and found the vessels using their image intensifier equipment. The lifeboat crew had previously tied on a handheld torch to the jet skis to aid identification. They then took the jet skis inside the Beaulieu River to the nearest safe haven.
The lifeboat returned to the station and was prepared again for service at 2.00am. It was certainly a busy weekend for the Lymington crew.
Helm Declan O’Riordan said, ‘It is really important to carry a VHF radio if possible, so anyone in trouble can use it as a form of communication. If you do see anyone in trouble please call 999 and ask for the Coastguard.’
Suzanne Brown, Lifeboat Press Officer, Lymington Lifeboat Station (07711) 393910 [email protected]
Paul Dunt, Regional Media Officer, SE and London (07785) 296252 [email protected]
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