The 14-year-old boy rescued after getting into difficulties while swimming off Guernsey’s west coast has told Express how grateful he is to those who saved him.
Tobias Batiste said he went for a swim at the north end of Cobo on Monday – the last day of his school holidays – but found himself being swept out to sea.
Luckily, people on the shore – including a lady walking her dog at Saline Bay – spotted him, and dialled 999.
Despite the speedy arrival of the first responders, which included a Coastguard Officer with a drone, and the RNLI’s Inshore Lifeboat, Tobias was in the water for around 90minutes in total.
His trip to the beach had started normally though.
“I’ve always been quite good about the sea, I’ve always liked it quite a bit, and I thought I’d take my snorkel down and go looking for crabs and stuff because it was my last day off before school.
“I was in the water for about 30 minutes until I saw this current, but there was rocks near it, so I thought I’d go over there and look near the rocks. Next thing you know, I’ve been swept out to sea.
“A lot was going through my mind. It was actually really scary,” he said.
“I’ve always been quite a good swimmer,” he added. “That day, it just caught me off guard.”
The Channel Islands Air Search was also despatched and paramedics were waiting on the shore to check him over.
One of those kept their eyes on Tobias while the attending Coastguard Officer got the drone up in the air, which was then used to keep track of Tobias until the Inshore Lifeboat was able to pick him up.
Tobias was unaware of all of this as he lay in the water.
“I couldn’t hear anyone because I was so far out. All I saw was someone waving their arms at me, and that sort of gave me a bit of hope that someone was coming,” he said.
“I’m sort of sat in the water, and I heard this humming noise. I thought it might have been the drone, but I looked up and it wasn’t the drone, because the drone was just sort of stuck there so I was looking around, and then I saw the boat rushing towards me and I was thinking, ‘finally someone’s come’.
“Then what they did was, they made me turn around with my back towards the boat so they could pick me up by my arms and put me in the boat. They gave me a blanket and stuff and took me back to shore.”
Photographs (above and top) taken by Sarah Froome show that Tobias was brought ashore at Grandes Rocques. He was then taken to hospital before his mum was able to take him home.
Despite his near miss in the sea, he told Express he was determined to be back at Les Voies School for the first day of term yesterday.
“I feel fine, apart from a cold and a cough. They said that my core temperature was actually perfect, but on the outside I was freezing. I didn’t want to miss the first day back, but when I got there I was so tired. My legs killed.
“When I got out the boat my legs had started cramping up really bad, especially on my right calf and that was hurting every time I was walking so I said, ‘I can’t do this, I need to go home’.”
Both Tobias and his mum told Express they are very grateful to everyone who played a part in his rescue.
They are keen to speak to the female dog walker in particular who they believe made the first 999 call for help.
When it comes to getting back in the water, Tobias hasn’t been put off and said he will continue swimming this summer – but he does want to say thank you to those who helped him when he got into difficulty on Monday.
“It’s such a nice thing to do, especially when it’s in that sort of situation. They said to me, 20 more minutes and I would have been a goner, and that’s why I’m so thankful.
“I’m relieved that I’m home and dry.”