RNLI called to four incidents in one day

Thursday 28 June 2018

Jersey's lifeboats had to tackle four incidents yesterday, including swimmers and paddle-boarders getting into trouble in rough seas, and a boat being swamped off Noirmont.

Just after 14:00, the all-weather lifeboat was called out to assist two passengers on a motorboat which had been swamped near Noirmont. The Pilot boat, Rival, was first there, and towed the boat back to St. Helier, escorted by the RNLI.

Later on, the inshore lifeboat was alerted by a concerned member of the public to a group of four paddle boarders in St. Aubin’s Bay who seemed as though they were being blown away from the shore.

Pictured: Members of the RNLI inshore lifeboat crew were alerted to a group of paddle boarders who appeared to be in some difficulty in St. Aubin's Bay.

As the crew was launching, the Coastguard informed them that they were also concerned for three swimmers near Elizabeth Marina, as the sea was becoming increasingly challenging for those in the water.

The crew decided to go to the swimmers first and on their way, they spotted two other swimmers who were heading to Elizabeth Castle but not making much progress. These swimmers were advised by the lifeboat crew-members to head back to shore before continuing towards the second group of swimmers, who told the crew that they were OK.

Pictured: The lifeboat had to assist in four different incidents in one day, including a group of swimmers heading to Elizabeth Castle.

Once this was established, the lifeboat headed to the paddle boarders, but by the time it arrived on the scene, the paddle boarders had made it safely to shore. 

On the way back to the station, the lifeboat volunteers decided to check on the first pair of swimmers, who were finding it difficult to get back to safety and were becoming increasingly cold. The crew brought the swimmers on board and returned them to shore.