Report by PHILIP IRWIN
LOCAL RNLI and Coastguard teams have had an “extremely busy” time since the lockdown was loosened in Wales.
It has led to suggestions that this year’s ‘staycationers’ simply don’t understand local conditions, after years holidaying abroad, in places such as the Mediterranean, where tides are not an issue.
The Bristol Channel, of course, has the second-highest rise and fall of tide in the world, and it has led to speculation that people new to the area are simply not ‘clued in’ to potential issues.
A spokesman for Porthcawl RNLI said: “I wouldn’t want to comment on whether it is down to staycationers, but we, together with our colleagues at Llantwit Major Coastguard, have been really busy taking people off beaches after they have been cut off.”
He added: “There was a group of 10 at Southerndown, and we were puzzled that not one of them had noticed the tide coming in. We can understand people not bringing tide tables, but you would have thought that at least one would have spotted they were about to be cut off.”
Porthcawl RNLI volunteers were particularly busy on Sunday 13th June, with both lifeboats called out to several incidents.
While the smaller relief D Class lifeboat, Super G II was called to look for a missing child near Trecco Bay (the child was found safely ashore), the Atlantic 85 lifeboat, Irene Cornford, went to help a father and son on a kayak and SUP between Ogmore and Southerndown, following a 999 call from the concerned wife/mother of the pair.
One of the Atlantic 85 crew went The lifeboat crew find 10 people stranded at Dunraven Bay. ashore at Hardy’s Bay in Ogmore by Sea to speak with the woman to establish exactly where the pair were. However, at this point an alarm was raised for a missing child, last seen in the water 30 minutes before.
A call went out, asking Llantwit Major Coastguard and the smaller Porthcawl lifeboat to look for the child. While searching, the Atlantic 85 found the father and son on the kayak and SUP, and they refused assistance.
Fortunately, after 10 minutes, the missing child was found safe and well.
This gave the Atlantic 85 crew a chance to check again on the father and son. By now, it had become obvious to the pair that they were making little progress against the flow of the incoming tide and this time they asked for help to get back to Hardy’s Bay.
Mission completed, both boats headed back to the station, where they were refueled, just in time to be called out again by the Coastguard!
Observers at Porthcawl NCI (National Coastwatch Institution) had spotted a large group of people cut off by the tide at Dunraven Bay, Southerndown. The tide was still incoming, with an hour and a half until high water.
Both lifeboats raced there and a megaphone conversation established that 10 people in two separate groups were stranded.
The D Class crew was able to get close to the pebbly beach and ferried them, three at a time, to the larger Atlantic 85 lifeboat. It took around 20 minutes to get them aboard and by then, the swell on the slipway at Southerndown meant it would be difficult to drop them ashore safely, so all casualties were transferred to Ogmore by Sea.
There, they were dropped ashore in the shelter of the rivermouth and met by colleagues from Llantwit Major Coastguard.
Just as the volunteer crews were preparing to leave, they were alerted to five further people cut off by the tide on the Newton side of the Ogmore river. The D Class crew transferred these people across to the Ogmore side.
It was 9.30pm before the crew’s day was done.
