SIXTEEN KAYAKERS CALL FOR HELP FROM PORTLAND COASTGUARD


At 4.00 pm today, a group of 16 kayakers broadcast two ‘Mayday’ signals to report themselves in significant difficulties close to the tidal Race at Portland Bill.

The group had become separated into two groups, one group of which had been swept into the Race itself.

Portland Coastguard received the ‘Mayday’ signal and immediately sent the Coastguard Rescue Helicopter 106 from Portland, along with requesting the launch of the two RNLI Lifeboats from Weymouth.  The Customs Cutter ‘Valiant’ also responded to the broadcast and was also tasked.  Portland Bill Coastguard Rescue Team were also dispatched, and Portland Bill National Coastwatch Institution (NCI) were made aware.

As the Units were getting underway and the enormity of the situation was judged by the Duty Watch Manager, the Coastguard Rescue Helicopter 104 was therefore also tasked from Solent.

Several other vessels also offered assistance.

At 16:06 Rescue helicopter 106 arrived on scene and started to feed information back to the Coastguard Operations Room.  The kayak casualties had now rafted into three tight groups which helped to contain the situation and prevented any further capsizes. 

Arriving on scene very shortly after, the Weymouth Inshore Lifeboat started to rescue the three kayakers who were in the gravest danger.

As darkness descended, the two Rescue Helicopters floodlit the scene while the two lifeboats continued to rescue casualties.  The Valiant gave significant assistance with spotting for empty kayaks (a crucial task to reduce subsequent reports of empty drifting kayaks which might prompt or deny later searches).

The health of two of the rescued kayakers started to deteriorate, so they were airlifted by Rescue 106 and taken to Dorchester Hospital where the landing site had been prepared by Wyke Regis Coastguard and Weymouth Sector Manager.

Having recovered all the kayakers and all but one of the kayaks (which the rescue units had been unable to find in the dark) the SAR units were released. The lifeboat crews took the casualties into Portland Marina where they were met by Portland Coastguard Officers and an Ambulance crew and Paramedic.


Popular posts from this blog

Label your kit at the coast

Image
Kayaks. Canoes. Paddleboards. What do they all have in common? They’re quite often found on the coastline or drifting out to sea. And if we don’t know who they belong to, we can spend time searching for an owner when they’re home safe and sound. So please help us to help you. Label your kit so that if you do get separated from it, and it turns up somewhere, we can get hold of you. In recent weeks, our Coastguard Rescue Teams have found numerous items such as kayaks and canoes drifting out at sea or abandoned near the shoreline. Unfortunately, some of the items we have found have not had their owners’ contact details written on them nor been reported as missing to the Coastguard. As a result, it makes it difficult for us to find out who it belongs to and also means we can never be completely sure if someone is safe or in the worst case, in trouble at sea. This can place a huge strain on our resources especially during the busy summer period when we have to call upon our Coastgua
Read more

A short history of HM Coastguard

Image
Today HM Coastguard is a world leader in maritime search and rescue. Looking back almost 200 years, the goods, which now travel by road, were carried by hundreds of small ships. Year in year out dozens of ships and hundreds of lives were lost within sight of the coast. Public shock and dismay at the tragedies drove forward the creation of national life saving organisations. Though it’s beginnings lie in those decades HM Coastguard originated not to meet the dangers of the seas but to combat a threat to the country’s economy and security – smuggling. As soon as medieval taxes were charged on imports and exports, people began smuggling. By 1743 th e estimate was that half the tea drunk in Britain was illegally imported and shows that smuggling was highly profitable. Smugglers have often been romanticised but the reality was brutal. Local people lived in fear, with violent reprisals on informers and the murder of revenue officers, while corruption enabled smugglers to evade harsh p
Read more

BOSCASTLE FLOODS: TEN YEARS ON

Image
Boscastle Flooding 16 th August 2004 The storms of Monday 16 August 2004 saw three weeks worth of rain fall in one day. The resulting water began to be funnelled down the valleys surrounding Boscastle and soon the steep roads became rivers. By the time that the water reached the picturesque village, it had picked up enough momentum to become a raging torrent, sweeping into buildings, washing cars away and felling huge trees. Graham King runs the Witches Museum in Boscastle and was also the station officer for the Boscastle Coastguard Rescue Team at the time of the floods: “ My museum is situated next to the harbour near the river ,” says Graham “ and I can see the coastguard equipment store from there. Initially I was concerned that the vehicle and equipment were going to become stranded but I soon began to realise how quickly the situation was deteriorating and called Falmouth Coastguard ” From that point on the villagers and tourists stranded in flood waters were he
Read more