St Ives Lifeboats have had two call-outs this week, to help a surfer throught to be in trouble, and to assist police in a coastal search.
The inshore crew set off. Photograph: Rob Cording-Cook
On Tuesday, the inshore crew, helmed by Jake Martin with two volunteer crew on board, made towards Hayle after reports of a surfer drifting in a rip current, and being dragged to the Godrevy area.
However, a 999 caller then confirmed that the surfer had made it to safety. Jake put a crew member ashore to check the surfer was okay, which they were.
“We remind people to never hesitate to make that call for help,” said Jake. “If you see someone in difficulty on or near the water, call 999 or 112 and ask for the Coastguard.”
Yesterday evening, volunteers were arriving for a scheduled training session when the inshore and all-weather boats were sent to another incident.
The Coastguard requested the launch of the inshore lifeboat to assist Ppolice with a shoreline search in the Gwithian area. A further request followed for the all-weather lifeboat to launch.
But, shortly after launching, the crews were stood down. The inshore lifeboat returned to station, while the all-weather lifeboat moored in the bay due to the high tide.
The crews returned to their planned training session, delivered by Ollie George, coastal lifeboat trainer, and facilitated by Dickon Berriman, area operations manager. It focused on human factors and operational decision making. Topics included communication, leadership and teamwork, decision making, and situation awareness, and how these elements will be embedded into RNLI training going forward.
