Saving Lives at Sea Season 10 Episode 1

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Transcript

00:00we're an island nation drawn to the sea that surrounds us a playground for some for others

00:10it's where they make their living but the sea's unpredictable the sea can be so powerful and

00:17dangerous the weather changes and before you know it you're in trouble grab hold him do not let him

00:23go i was literally fighting for my life without them i would have drowned

00:30there to save our lives is a volunteer army of over 5 000 ordinary people

00:38you have to be able to drop everything when the pager goes off

00:45equipped with their own cameras the crews give us a unique insight into every call out

00:53as only they see it for those who risk their lives it has become a way of life

01:01to save somebody's life it's the best thing in the world really

01:06in the northeast of england lying on the northumberland coast is the small town of new biggin by the sea

01:26so new biggin used to be a fishing village it's been a fishing village for a long time but obviously

01:34with the decline of fishing it's become more of a holiday touristy location it's quite a small bay

01:42we've got two breakwaters there saint bartholomew which is perched on the the cliffs at church point

01:47and then we've got the couple which is a statue of a man a woman facing out at sea the couple have been

01:55there about 14 years now

01:56new biggin bay can give you a bit of a false sense of security the bay itself feels quite small and

02:04quite safe but with an offshore wind that'll carry beyond the breakwaters and as soon as you get beyond

02:09the breakwaters then you're in open sea monday evening early june we had been having a meeting

02:21at the lifeboat station and as we're getting right to leave we noticed that there was a an opened kayak

02:26with fishing rods there was two people there there was an offshore wind blowing

02:31got back home and got the binoculars on them sat in the window while still fishing seemed to be happy

02:41and they weren't indicating any distress whatsoever um but i just thought i just got a feeling about

02:47these two richard continues watching until they disappear from view then just as night begins to fall

02:58the kayakers have called the coast guard to say they're sinking but their call is cut off before

03:06they can give their location thanks to richard spotting them earlier however the crew have a good

03:11idea of where they might be would drop the search area don't know a quarter what it could have been

03:18so it meant at the time available would be better used because of the person in the water there's a

03:25massive sense of urgency because you don't know how long to be in the water so as soon as it got

03:30the kid on went on the boat the light was starting to fade the visibility was decreasing with that

03:35just stepped up the the urgency of getting out there and trying to find them with what light we had left

03:39just 11 minutes after the page has sounded the new biggin crew launch and head out into the darkening

03:46bay towards the area richard last saw the kayak it's probably one of the most difficult times

03:53to be looking for anybody at twilight because you haven't got night vision

03:58you've got a little bit of sea condition there so you can easily miss them as well

04:04um with a passing wave looking for a person in the water which predominantly is no bigger than a football

04:10despite the fading light and heavy swells within just a few minutes of launching the crew spot something

04:20we both saw something floating out the water which looked to be like a head in her arm

04:27we proceeded over to the area

04:31it then appeared to be a fishing pod so there was a bit of disappointment

04:38does leave you feeling a little bit empty

04:42lots of things going through my head at the time

04:48obviously my next step whether i'm going to break into a search pattern

04:51the dune's heat temperatures here average 12 degrees

04:56with cold water robbing a body of heat around 25 times faster than air

05:02hypothermia is a very real danger so the crew need to find the casualties fast

05:07we knocked the engines off and just listened using our ears to see if we could find them

05:15and in that moment we faintly have a shout a little a voice you know to very very faintly

05:28as soon as you hear the cavalry shouting first thing you get a sense of relief job's not necessarily done

05:42we were in the right area

05:44at this point it's wracking mentally what is the state of these casualties

05:51i know and we all know they're not safe until they're on that boat

05:55the crew head in the direction of the voice

05:59but even with everyone desperately scanning the water

06:02there's still no sign of the casualties

06:05then just as they're about to cut the engines again

06:16the crew see something in the water between themselves and land

06:22so from here in the initial shell probably took around another 15 seconds before we were on scene

06:30he was obviously cold tired

06:41straight away the next question is where is his friend

06:48as the crew listen out they hear another shout coming from somewhere nearby

06:55so the second casualty was in a lot worse condition than the first

07:21he was frowsy you didn't know where he was he was very much on his last legs

07:33i was trying to breathe and i was that weak i think if i didn't have my life tracker on

07:45i wouldn't be here the day

07:46i felt like i was drowning i felt like i was going to die

07:52sean and anthony had set off in their kayak earlier to spend the evening sea fishing

08:03i've known anthony since i was five six year old

08:10known him since since first school really

08:12his dad used to have a boat so we used to have one of his dad's boat all the time

08:16so being at sea is like it's the best thing for me really i love it i love it

08:22when they were older they bought their own kayak for sea fishing trips

08:27just like the one they planned that june evening

08:30absolutely perfect kayak weather

08:37you will not get a better sea than that

08:41i finished work i got ready went and got sean

08:44i put my phone into the glove box of the car

08:47but then i started walking down to meet sean on the shoreline

08:51and something clicked in my head

08:53go get your phone

08:54just before 8pm sean and anthony headed out to sea

09:01the fishing was really good and we were laughing we were enjoying it and it was a good night

09:09and then it just all of a sudden it just seemed like the wind got up from the coast

09:17the offshore wind also created waves that helped push sean and anthony almost

09:25just a mile out to sea

09:31as we're trying to head back in we're having to head into the swell

09:33like head on into it

09:35and all of a sudden there was a lot of water started splashing against the kayak

09:39bailing and bailing and bailing and i just couldn't keep up with the water that was coming in

09:43and i said sean i think it's a 999 situation this luckily i got the phone call in rang 999

09:51and then next thing you know that's when like a rogue wave come from the side and it flung out

09:59my kayak just flipped and my phone left me hands

10:04the shock of how cold that was horrible horrible that's when it that's when it hit us

10:10do they actually know where we are are there is someone coming to see us do they know i'm here

10:20having now become separated from their kayak and with only life jackets keeping them afloat

10:25sean and anthony tried to swim almost a mile back to shore i was swimming and swimming and swimming

10:31and you could see the lights on the in the beer at the pubs coming on and the houses and the street

10:37lights coming on and then just felt like we're getting nowhere and time was fading and thinking

10:42this is it was terrifying by then

10:47after 15 minutes of swimming they found themselves further from shore than when they'd started

10:53and close to exhaustion

10:56i couldn't feel my legs to be honest i felt like my body was closing down

11:00yeah i was looking at the church at church point again i was thinking well i'm gonna die

11:06i wonder if that's where my funeral's gonna be

11:12and i lay on my back and i had tears running down my cheeks crying just like thinking of my family and

11:19my kids and just terrified just thinking of what like me daughter's not gonna have a dad there

11:26i says i'm i'm done i can't swim anymore i give up i can't do anything and he was like and you're not

11:37howie keep strong you swim

11:42it sounds daft but nearly 11 o'clock at night you're a mile out of tea and i still i still thought

11:49i'm not it's i'm not going today

11:55that was when i thought i heard the sound of an engine

12:03i looked to me left i just i can't describe the moment of seeing that boat that lifeboat come

12:08around past the brake motor i shouted anthony i said the lifeboat here i was screaming and i had

12:14my hands up help help and then i heard the engine switch off on the boat and i knew they're switching

12:21that engine off to listen for us listen for cries for help so i screamed and then i shouted come south

12:32at that moment is the one moment i think saved me and anthony

12:44it's the one moment you can't explain the relief how good it feels to see that life were coming

12:52for you it's unbelievable you can't explain it the last thing i remember is a man leaning over

13:02and i just remember his fears he had like a tash and he pulled us up and then i can't remember

13:07anything of coming in from them

13:16he was in a lot worse condition in the first car usually he was a lot quicker a lot more tired

13:22he wanted to go to sleep and i told him i said you're not going to sleep stay with us

13:28probably took less than a minute to get back

13:30it always just seems like the longest journey of your life

13:38it was terrifying but it's just like to know that i'm here

13:44it's it's amazing and it's all thanks to the lads and the poor that right

13:53sean and anthony were both kept in hospital overnight

13:56to recover from hypothermia and their brush with disaster

14:02the week after i went down to see the lifeboat crew when i first went in i was looking for the

14:08one that pulled us out of the water and i just remember going in and just seeing the man sitting

14:13there with a tash and i said to him i went come here give me a squeeze can't thank him enough like

14:20honestly my hero the whole feeling in that book all my hours unbelievable

14:29there's a massive sense of relief it feels surreal

14:32you know two people are going back to the family at the end of the day

14:42although only two people needed rescuing here from the open sea

14:46the volunteer crews of the rnli increasingly have to deal with far more casualties in the water

14:53and far more regularly

15:01a major rescue operation was launched this morning in response to a report that a migrant boat was sinking

15:08the dover lifeboat is returning home with 68 casualties on board rescued from a small boat

15:32stranded in the shipping lanes they were cold and wet as you'd expect being out on the water for

15:39probably six to seven hours people are scared people also are very tired they might be dehydrated

15:47some of them are just a little bit shell-shocked

15:51we used to respond to 30 or 40 people on the boat but now actually what we're responding to

15:56is not shy of 60 to 80 people at any one time on poorer quality build boats boats that are flimsy

16:03boats that have got wooden bottoms that have been absorbing water overloaded so by the time we've got

16:09to them in the middle of the channel these people are desperate you're okay here they're all sat down

16:14we're under control i can't see anyone else in the water we don't tow these boats because these boats

16:19are not made to be towed they're not they're not really see-worthy boats as these boats cannot be

16:29towed everyone has been transferred to the lifeboat to remove them from danger the rescue itself went as

16:35smooth as you could that was accomplished really well and we were just thinking about going back to

16:39dover um and that's when things changed mayday mayday mayday has come in about another small

16:52boat in trouble close to the shipping lanes the dover crew have been tasked by the coast guard to turn back

16:58and help it was for a small crossing boat that had capsized and gone down and there was people in the

17:07water we didn't know how many was in the water at the time when i heard that i will be honest my heart

17:18sank because this would be the first job that i'd ever been to where there were mass casualties in the

17:26water although the dover lifeboat already has dozens of casualties on board this new emergency could

17:34mean rescuing many more we were rigging scramble nets we were getting life rafts ready

17:47move on we've got things we call them now horseshoes and it's basically a mini life jacket that just

17:53inflates up and looks like a horseshoe but it's in a little little bag like among people the crew can

17:58throw it quite accurately at them don't open these i'll just throw them i was helping the original

18:04boat of people um down into the survivor cabin so when i first arrived back on deck we were already at

18:12the incident um and that was when i realized i was looking at something that i'd never seen before and i

18:19wasn't quite ready to know what i was looking at the boat had burst and there were people clinging

18:43on to whatever they could cling on to i'd never seen that many people in the water

19:02i could just hear screaming people screaming at the tops of their voices come around nothing will ever

19:11prepare you for hearing people scream for their life it's it's the worst experience

19:21and there was people that sadly were face down in the water that weren't shouting at us

19:29they were just floating away

19:31it looked like something from a war film it it didn't feel real um so i was uh for temporarily i i

19:45was a little bit stunned so that's when the training kicks in and you have a job to do there's a lot of

19:54people that need rescuing let's get to it lee with so many casualties in the water it's down to cox and lee

20:02up on the bridge and in overall charge of the boat to come up with a rescue plan

20:11so at that stage no we weren't taking anyone we stayed off and we are trying to give as much

20:16life-saving support as we can to as many as we can throw them the horseshoes the rings give them as

20:25much inflatable aids to help themselves with the main group of 15 casualties now surrounded by

20:32horseshoes and clinging to the upturned boat the crew head off to help a man who has been swept away

20:38on the tide without a flotation device it was critical that we we got support to them quickly you know

20:49hey you're okay you're okay he was screaming for help he was so so exhausted he he didn't have much

21:02energy left he didn't have much more to give and i remember using all the strength i had and

21:21i consider myself a bit of a rugby prop and again well done and again

21:26it took all of my strength to bring him aboard that boat mate we got one in hey talk to me are you

21:36okay up in your mind you're thinking i don't know how much of this i can do go that way please sir but

21:49you just keep functioning you know you just keep doing

21:52with one casualty safely on board the lifeboat heads back to the main group still clinging to the

22:01capsized boat what happened next actually shocked me wait

22:16whole group of them started swimming to the side of our boat

22:19i'm stuck with i had to sit there to stop my engines as such of no power and wait then relying

22:28on my crew literally pulling them over the side deck having struggled to haul just one exhausted

22:36casualty up the side of the lifeboat the crew now have to rescue 15 more

22:41we were all helping each other as best we could

22:52with so many exhausted casualties in the water that's so weak one of the crew has climbed down

22:57the netting to help them on board come with me this side come with me i've never seen fear in people's

23:06faces like i saw that day okay

23:12they'd have been in the water for 20 minutes half hour your limbs and that get cold you don't have the

23:16movement of mobility guys quick get a hand on it we've got people who've got no strength you are there

23:22and it is a life and death situation and you can make that difference two three

23:31we were dragging them over the hand rails just crushing them onto the deck come on

23:42i was leaning over the side and i was looking at a man who was sinking in front of me

23:48bring your hand on him he had no strength he he he was you know slipping literally slipping away

24:01i won't forget his eyes they were just imploring me to not let go and and i just thought to myself

24:09them i thought i'm not letting go i'm not letting go and i think i said to him i'm not letting you go

24:15i'm not letting you go come on my friend we managed to pull him out and you have that instantaneous

24:24a few that are out of the water but it doesn't stop there wait other vessels start arriving in

24:31response to the mayday to help rescue the last desperate casualties face down face down face down

24:44there was one guy at the front of the boat i could see he he was he had starfished in the water

24:50and he was really gray and blue i knew he was in a really bad way and he had no one with him

24:59hey hey hey hey hey hey lee can i enter the water

25:04you think of the risk of them not seeing a loved one again and all you want to do is get in the water

25:16and help them come on enter the water he had asked me several times can i go in and i'd said yes at first

25:31the reason i changed my mind is if he'd gone in the water my focus would have gone from helping those

25:36already in the water to him and that would have compromised the rest of the people from training

25:43we've done the reality of that situation is i'm probably not going to help everyone so it's what

25:49can i do the best for the most people possible in such a short space of time

25:53he's got him and in that split second before i can get off the boat

26:00a french swimmer from one of the rescue boat gets him on board their boat

26:04the french rescue boat pulls the drowning man on board

26:13leaving michael free to help the remaining casualties clinging to the lifeboat

26:19yeah we're getting your friend come on so once we onboarded and we had everybody that we could

26:25on deck uh we're then moving through the casualties to see uh who needs medical attention

26:34eight count how many 21 22 3 4 5 26 27 28 28 two and a half hours after launching

26:42and with 87 casualties now on board the crew begin the journey back to dover

26:48i didn't know at this point if all these people were going to actually stay alive

27:06because we were still way out in the channel we were miles out and there were so many people on the boat

27:18yeah so we had one guy uh on the floor um who was uh passing out we had the guy that had uh

27:29hypothermia and another third guy that again was passing out next to him come on okay we had probably

27:38four quite seriously sick people that might not make it back

27:48it takes the crew almost half an hour to pick their way through the shipping lanes and make it back to

27:54dover we're here we're here

28:01all the force ambulances and coast guard were waiting for us do you want any from the bow yet

28:10when the casualties were leaving a lot of them were just getting hold of you thank you thank you a lot

28:17of them couldn't walk properly

28:22most of them were helped off the boat that day

28:29i've been around a lot of years in the institution and that's probably the

28:34from that's probably the worst i've seen um for having to deal with so much in one day

28:39come on the dover crew pulled 19 people out of the english channel that day

28:45every one of them survived

28:49it was one of my worst days i've ever had on the boat but also there's 19 people alive today

28:59because our boat went there that day

29:02it's incredible i mean that's that's all we could hope for and you know may they go on and live fruitful happy lives

29:14it's in

29:20i am proud of what i did so i don't know why it upsets me so much thinking about it

29:27but yeah i am proud

29:28people have criticized the rni for involved in the channel crossing work but uh me personally it's a

29:41life it's a mum it's a dad it's a brother a sister a child although the 19 casualties pulled from the water by

29:50the dover crew survived six others rescued by other vessels did not all i know is these are people that

30:00are in boats boats that sink

30:03the volunteers of the rnli are dedicated to saving lives at sea

30:21the volunteers of the rnli are dedicated to saving lives at sea

30:25but having to deal with the loss of life is occasionally unavoidable

30:35sometimes rescues um aren't as successful and um you're not finding a semi-conscious person you

30:43you're pulling a a body out of the water one of the shouts that i was on where it wasn't wasn't a

30:50good outcome you know we paused we put the boat into neutral and just sat and had a had a chat about

30:56what we've been through when shouts don't go to plan or don't work out you go back to the station

31:03and everybody feels for everybody else you know we all get we all grip together and just make sure

31:10that we're all okay um you know we message each other and just say you okay we will talk as a crew

31:23and support each other um knowing that some family somewhere has lost lost part of their their group

31:34with the training that we get with the the station and the rnli you know we're fully supported mentally

31:38and physically you know each shout can affect different people in different ways so having

31:42support mechanism whether that be just having a cup of coffee and decompressing at the station or

31:47having an impartial point to go to once you're away from the station that helps as well

31:54i'd be lying if i'd said i don't remember the bad shouts because they are always with us but

32:01it's reassuring to know that the good shouts heavily outweigh the bad ones

32:08the good shouts heavily on the east coast of ireland facing out into the irish sea

32:25is the old fishing port of scaries

32:27scaries means rocks it's some viking term for rocks that's sort of evident once you come along

32:38the headland here there's quite a lot of rocks that you need to be wary of

32:43we've got a fairly rugged coastline there's two beautiful beaches that you can use as well

32:49scaries on a good day in the summer here is absolutely packed crazy busy the beaches can be full

32:54there's a really popular ice cream shop just beside the lifeboat station which can have

32:58a huge queue outside as well first established over a hundred years ago the current scaries

33:05lifeboat station is based on the harbor in the north of the town just a stone's throw from its

33:11youngest crew member leo i'm living at home with my granddad at the minute and we're very fortunate

33:19to live right across the road from the sea looking actually overlooking shenik shenik island

33:29leo moved in with his grandfather hugh just over a year ago after his grandmother margaret passed away

33:36suddenly margaret would sit here and i'd sit there and we'd talk about the world

33:43and our grandchildren and that was her favorite view in the world the view immortalized in paint by hugh

33:53also gives him a ringside seat whenever his grandson heads out on a shout

34:00i've trained myself not to worry because he was trained in the boat and the others in the boat are

34:08all very capable so i don't worry about you because i think you know what you're doing

34:13i definitely say he's a big supporter you know the odd time if we have an early call out i might come

34:19in in the morning and he'll always know he'll always ask and you know is everything okay we get on very

34:25close sunday afternoon end of may although the weather is warming up the temperature of the irish sea

34:40is still in single figures i was on the beach with my sisters the day the shout and my bleep went off

34:48a distressed phone call has come in from kayakers in trouble somewhere between the islands but the

34:58signal was so weak the coast guard isn't sure if it's two people in trouble or 12 and they've since

35:04lost all contact anytime you hear people in the water you want to get the boat in the waters as fast as

35:13possible you know once you're in the water you're going to start getting cold very quickly 10 minutes

35:21after the call came in the scary's lifeboat launches and heads to what they believe to be the kayakers

35:27location the initial reports we got back were that they were in between the islands and we have three

35:34islands we're really just focusing on getting out there and you know and getting the search and rescue

35:41in operation as quickly as possible as there could be as many as 12 people in the water the lifeboat

35:48at flank station half is also tasked to help with the search the coast guard had the helicopter out at

35:55this stage and we were made aware that hoath has also been called in so they were on the way over and

36:01they've got the bigger boats so when we left the bay the sea was rougher than it is closer to the shore

36:08which is often the way it was quite tricky to to see anything because there was there was a bit of

36:15chop in the water four minutes after launch the scary's crew are first to arrive at the area between

36:23the islands where they think the casualties called from we were looking around there and couldn't see

36:30anything the tricky thing is there was lots of lobster pots around as well so you're constantly

36:34thinking lobster pots is maybe somebody in the water it's like looking for a coconut uh and a bobbing sea

36:43whatever 100 100 200 300 meters away it's it's difficult

36:55well you're just thinking god are we has you know something more serious happened here

36:59the longer time goes on the more worried you become with no sign of any of up to 12 kayakers in the

37:08water the crew start heading further out they follow the current towards open sea where the

37:14helicopter has arrived to help with the widening search once you hit the back of shenik islands the

37:21sea opens up quite a lot it's the irish sea you know so and there's a lot there's a lot of air a lot of

37:27sea to look out to you know what's under the water there is that a boy again you're worried more than

37:34anything else you know you know it's time critical and i think these guys have been in the water for

37:3920 30 minutes maybe at this stage and and you do you start worrying uh are we actually gonna right

37:46are we gonna find these have they gone under with the currents flowing in different directions around

37:52the islands judging where the casualties have drifted is difficult but as time ticks on and

37:58the outlook appears more bleak the coast guard contacts them with an updated location

38:06it transpired with this shade that the guys in trouble had phoned in a dry bag and they were very

38:11distressed but the they were able to get the gps coordinates from that call

38:16five three three four three four once they came through proceeded to that area

38:28so just kind of shortly after we got the coordinates joe thought he spotted something

38:33uh in the water

38:35we weren't sure if it was a lobster pot kind of with a flag on it

38:47but then joe said he he spotted the paddle

38:52you could just see the tip of the kayak still above the water

38:56the closer we got we could see that there were two people in the water with a submerged kayak beside

39:07them the lifeboat heads over mindful that although they found two casualties there may be as many as

39:1410 more still missing

39:19the casualties seemed pretty shaken when we arrived

39:23hey

39:27i mean you just want to get them on the boat as quickly as possible

39:30okay one at a time you hold on there wait there okay you wait there oh you're okay okay

39:35you have to kind of work as a team to to pull them in

39:38yeah it is difficult getting casualties on board particularly if they've been in the water a long

39:45time they're full of water so they're heavier is also we have it

39:52you okay you okay you sure lie down there lie down we were very relieved to have found them and

39:58now at the same time we still were going off reports of 12 people and here were two

40:04two okay is there anyone else with you just the two of you yeah is everyone with you okay the

40:11casualties assured us it's just the two of us you're not looking for 12 people yeah that was a relief

40:17for us it was just the two of them and nobody else was in the water oh you don't think so much

40:25no it's okay it's okay when the guys got on the boat they were absolutely physically and mentally

40:29exhausted they were so upset and just so relieved to be in the boat

40:32you okay sit up here okay we're gonna lie up here okay

40:39you know you can lie up this way okay although the casualties are now out of the water the rescue

40:44is still far from over our two main concerns right now are going to be cold and drowning

40:51secondary journey can you swallow any water secondary drowning can be any time after you've

40:57held any amount of water and it stays in the lungs and you can drown and you can drown

41:05many hours have it after having been in the water how long were you in the water

41:09how long were you in the water 30 minutes you're still just conscious that they're they're really cold

41:16hypothermia can be so dangerous we just need to at that stage get them back in and into heat as quickly

41:23as we can how are you feeling okay both casualties were alert chatting and talking all the way back

41:29to base i mean i remember mentioning to them don't worry we'll we'll we'll pick up your your kayak and

41:34he turned around and said he doesn't want to see a kayak ever again his kayaking days are over

41:40the crew take the two casualties back to the lifeboat station where they are met by the emergency services

41:46we had ambulance fire brigade i think it was two ambulances actually it was it was quite clear

41:58that everything had been thrown at this color just on the initial report of 12 people

42:09one of the casualties immediately saw this and and went oh my god is this all for me

42:13all right the two casualties who had been in the water for almost an hour are warmed up by the

42:22paramedics and treated for mild hypothermia before being released an hour later they were in such a

42:30distressed state when we got there they'd been in the water such a long time they were both saying

42:35that they weren't sure how long they would have been able to hold on for

42:38they said a road wave might have hit them and and capsized them um so it was i think it was just a

42:47freak accident really that they went over i think they could have drowned fairly easily i mean if if we

42:54hadn't have located them uh in that time they could have drifted out yeah they were they were two lucky guys

43:02i'm sure my granddad probably did uh have the binoculars out i was probably watching this one but

43:10uh i'll have to check with them i'm not quite sure

43:16so

43:2580 miles east across the irish sea perched on the angle sea coast is the welsh seaside town of moilvra

43:35moilvra is your kind of idyllic picturesque uh small seaside village it's got everything you could

43:40ask for it's got lovely cafes and small village shops and pubs it gets extremely busy here in the

43:48summer people coming over staying on the campsites and the caravans so we've got a lot of people come

43:55down here just go up playing on their paddle boards kayaks and stuff small rocky secluded coves

44:02nice sandy beaches and it looks fantastic on social media pictures

44:11there's been a lifeboat here for over 170 years

44:16and vince's family has been part of the crew for almost half of them

44:22i'm a third generation lifeboat crew in my family um my grandfather was on the crew in the 50s and 60s

44:28um my dad then joined the crew kind of 80s 90s couldn't wait to join on my 17th birthday kind of

44:37following my family's footsteps um so i've been involved now for 25 years and i've been full-time

44:43for 23 of those there's a real strong sense of community in the village the lifeboat's been a part

44:51of it for hundreds of years we rely on the community to crew our lifeboats and they rely on us to provide

44:57safety on the sea a sunny friday in mid-august midday was already at the station doing some planned

45:11maintenance and it was just coming up to lunchtime getting awful peckish and the page went and went off

45:20so the initial information that we received that there was a

45:24a child that's been blown out to sea on a rubber dinghy

45:28the worst rescues are the ones involving kids as a parent i think it kind of ups the ante a little bit

45:37worst case scenario with with the dinghies is that

45:40the child jumps into the sea and tries to swim for the beach

45:45you need to get this boat in the water very fast because minutes do save lives

45:49five minutes after the call came in the crew launched their inshore lifeboat and head to location

45:58two miles from the station so the last uh reported position of the casualty was about

46:04two three hundred meters off liby beach which is a large sandy beach

46:08round to the west of our station more information comes through as the situation develops and we

46:17get the information that the child is actually in the water your heart just sinks because you don't

46:23know how old they are you don't know what experience they've got how strong they are

46:28my biggest fear when you hear that there's a child in the water there's potential of drowning a mother

46:35losing her child and a child losing her life

46:40heading towards the location you could really feel the strength of the wind that was blown offshore

46:46keenly aware that the strong wind and tides are pushing the casualty further out to sea with every

46:51passing minute the crew cover the two miles as quickly as they can with the offshore winds you

46:59get told one position initially and things do change so the time it takes us to get to the shout that

47:05casualty might not be in the same position six minutes after launching they arrive at kligwee bay

47:15as we're heading around towards the the area you're scanning you're looking to see if you can see

47:20anything obvious

47:24glancing over to my right hand side i just see an object that looks like it could be it

47:39is it just you yeah so as we got closer we could see that the lad was hanging on to the dinghy which

47:46was starting to to deflate you could see that he was shaking up um he was shivering and the dinghy

47:55itself was full of water wasn't in the best state

48:01turn it up two three the casualty was about 500 meters off the beach which is quite a long way out

48:08for a small dinghy full of water and one child on board are you cold

48:16what's your name saris tom called tom as well how old are you tom 15 15. as soon as we get the casualty

48:24on board we start to do the casualty care checks you feel like you've hurt anywhere you're injured no

48:30to quickly assess a casualty the crew have a checklist that establishes whether they are little

48:35sick requiring first aid or big sick requiring urgent medical attention can you give me a count to

48:4210 yeah just gonna check your breathing rate okay so just breathe normally ready go so going through the

48:49casualty checklist we noted that the um breathing rate of the casualty was quite heavy breathing which

48:55flags up as a big sick marker big sick of the minute ingested any water at all as soon as we

49:03get a big sick marker it's that first indication of this is you know a serious situation we sent

49:13a request then to the coast guard to meet us on the beach so that they could find us somewhere warm

49:17to getting warm back up keep the wind off here we've got a thing called a thermal protection aid we

49:27carry it in our first aid kits just maintains their core temperature as we were coming back into the

49:34beach quite a few people had come to the water's edge to meet us and with that i think he he quite

49:39quickly saw his his angry moment coming down the beach towards him to be fair i actually sat there

49:52and thought i'm gonna kill him because i'd warned him so i was a bit like oh my god i can't believe

49:59this is happening lauren had planned on spending a fun day on the beach with her son thomas his two

50:09younger brothers and a new toy all my brothers founded the d at the beach a few days before so

50:18the plan was to go there just test it out and stuff i was paying attention to the other two on the beach

50:25as well so he was trying to keep an eye on both of those two running off and playing on thomas in the

50:30water as well i was enjoying paddling quite a bit i didn't realize i was going further and further out

50:39and i was struggling a bit i wasn't very good at rowing

50:45as well as taking out the dinghy thomas had also done what the rnli always recommend

50:52and taken his phone so i phoned him and said you need to start paddling yourself back in a little

50:58bit you look like you're drifting too far i started rowing and then she called me again saying i hadn't

51:05moved at all the second time i phoned him i was a bit bit more like thomas you need to start coming

51:11back in like you look like you're going further and further away from me so that's when i finally

51:17thought the ding the dinghy's not helping me so i jump out of it and uh just started swimming while

51:25pushing it it was hard trying to swim back because the water was pushing me out the wind was pushing me

51:35out i got tired it was nightmare to get out i felt worried in that moment because i thought i'm not

51:45getting any closer it's pretty lonely trying to get back fortunately while thomas had been trying to

51:53swim to shore a bystander had realized the danger he was in and called 999 i wasn't aware that anybody

52:00had phoned the coast guard until i actually saw the lifeboat come in stay there stay there i didn't

52:06hear the boat the rnli boat behind me until one of them said are you okay

52:14i did feel a bit embarrassed because i thought hey this must be a stupid rescue

52:20i also felt relieved on when they got me on the boat i still keep this on you though

52:26in the end the heavy breathing that triggered the big sick assessment was down to exhaustion

52:34from swimming against the current and strong offshore wind after warming up on the beach for a

52:40few minutes no further treatment was required jump out let's get this wrapped back around it was

52:44worrisome that it needed to actually get rescued but relieving that it wasn't anything too drastic

52:52i'm sorry i'm gonna cry sorry

53:00it could have been a lot worse if somebody hadn't seen him phoned

53:12casualty is extremely lucky that somebody else called it in

53:15he was getting blown further offshore towards a busy shipping lane ten minutes later could have

53:22been looking at a fatality to the person that phoned him

53:30i'm really grateful that you did it

53:32i think any parent would have been relieved but also sat wondering what could have happened and

53:47how badly it could have gone wrong i think the fact that he stayed with a dinghy was was a lifesaver

53:53you know it kept him afloat it was buoyancy for him it's always rewarding as a new parent myself is a

54:00once you bring that child home to their parents it's very rewarding

54:14after their dramatic day at the beach lauren and thomas are both now more cautious when it comes to the sea

54:20i think thomas is a bit more aware of an offshore breeze and what can happen and how quickly it can

54:30happen thank you that has not put me off going down the water again i'd gladly do it just i'll be more

54:38aware of my surroundings next time next year we'll still go down to the beach as a family like we

54:45always do and have fun and i can say with her to the we won't be having inflatables no we won't be

54:51taking stuff like that to the beach again

55:02in newbiggin friends sean and anthony have both found a new appreciation of life

55:08after their fishing trip went so badly wrong

55:14started fishing there and then we're drifting north and that's where we ended up flipping in the kayak

55:20do is bring back memories but you just got to remember you're here at the end of the day it's

55:24happened getting through it oh you can 100 you can't turn back time but you can learn off it can't you

55:30yeah i mean anthony have been friends since first school um but it's a much stronger bond now the two

55:37of us having to go through a near-death experience has brought me and anthony so much closer

55:45get a nice boat get a nice engine on the back spare engine give back we'll get fishing and do what

55:50we love doing yeah 100 definitely i think i'm gonna buy a fishing boat me and anthony

55:55get a boat life jackets flares the whole whole lot we're both love our fishing where i always have

56:03you know it's it's an accident like lifeboat crew said to us um we hope this doesn't put you off the

56:09sea but i think it puts us off a kayak

56:12and on the south coast of england the crew of the dover lifeboat are still dealing with the emotional

56:26fallout from the night in august when they pulled 19 people out of the channel

56:35the day after that job my arms were black and blue

56:39where people had held on to my forearms come on come on over i didn't do a shout for a long time

56:49afterwards it took me a long time to process what i'd seen i've got it but you still show up because

56:57you can make things better come on

57:00i remember talking on the debrief with the crew over this show and i kept hammering home you saved

57:0919 people regardless of what else happens how many people in this world can say you've saved 19 people

57:16in an hour very very few to always be proud of that our motto is to save every life at sea

57:26and you know no matter who they are if they're in water in distress needing our help you know that's

57:33what we're there to do

57:41every shout that starts with those words cut off by the tide we're straight to top speed we need to get

57:46there and we need to get there quickly i looked at the tide we was really stuck when i first saw the

57:52yacht i just had to sort of have a bit of a gasp we were worried were they all in the water i did

58:02think we were gonna die

58:22so

58:32you

58:34you

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