Two people have been rescued in a joint RNLI operation after their inflatable dinghy was blown seawards off the Thanet coast.
UK Coastguard received a call at around 3.30pm today (Saturday 14 August) from RNLI lifeguards at Joss Bay reporting they were responding to an inflatable dinghy with two persons onboard being blown seawards under the influence of wind and tide.
One of the lifeguards on a rescue board had reached the craft which was being blown towards Botany Bay and further assistance was requested.
Margate’s RNLI inshore lifeboat was tasked to assist and quickly found the dinghy along with the lifeguard around 400 yards offshore between Botany Bay and Foreness Point. The two casualties, along with the lifeguard, were taken on board the lifeboat and after checking on the welfare of all three the dinghy was taken in tow back to Joss Bay where the casualties’ family were waiting.
Lifeguards at Joss Bay cleared an area of the beach which was busy with bathers allowing the safe landing of the lifeboat. The dinghy’s two occupants were unharmed after their adventure and the lifeboat returned to station.
Lee Button, Deputy Launching Authority, Margate RNLI said: “Thanks are due to the Joss Bay lifeguards who quickly recognised the developing situation, responded and called it in to the coastguard for further assistance while reassuring the dinghy’s occupants.
“The fact that it drifted around two miles in a short space of time indicates the peril with using inflatables at sea which are quickly influenced by environmental conditions making it difficult to return to shore.”
People need to listen to those in the know and stop using untethered blow-up boats in the sea. The souvenir shops should take some responsibility and stop selling them near the beaches also.
Time and time again we hear this story repeated.
Well done RNLI , at least you’re not being used to bring those other inflatables in to our shores !
Dave, you beat me to it!
The RNLI will and should help anyone who needs them. They are impartial in their professional behaviour and that’s how they should be.
Yup, they save the lives of those on a day out to the beach, and they assist those breaking the law and illegally entering the UK from that ever so dangerous country the other side of the cannel! Funny how if you or I helped someone enter the country illegally, we’d be arrested…
They do not “assist those breaking the law and illegally entering the UK”. They save lives at sea.
Your sentiments, although parroting those of Nigel Farage, are largely out of step with the rest of society. When Mr Farage made his unpleasant comments, donations to the RNLI shot up by £200,000.
If you object to what the RNLI does, you could always cancel your donation.
ANdrew, Mikes comments are not out of step with the rest of society but then you know it all don’t you? if the mainly young men in these boats want to come to Britain they should do so legally, they probably have no I D no papers no nothing to show who they are so they are in fact illegal and the RNLI for everything good that it has done have no right to escort them to our shores if the boat was still afloat then what danger were they in huh?
Yes donations “shot up” to £200,000. But even if that money was made up of £1 donations, that’s only 200,000 people in a country of 60 something million people! More like a drop in the ocean than “the rest of society.”
As you have so much knowledge Marva, regarding the RNLI, perhaps you can answer this Question, the RNLI, Have one available Lifeboat, that boat is on its way to Rescue 50 illegal migrants, then there is a call comes in to the Coast Guard, that 2 children have been blown out to Sea in an inflatable, who do the RNLI rescue first.
No idea. 50 lives or 2? How would I know?
Well Marva, I am surprised, as you seem to comment on every Topic that is up for Discussion, well this is my take on it, the 2 Children, have had some bad luck and got blown out to sea, the illegal immigrants, have knowingly put to Sea in an unseaworthy Boat, so put themselves in Danger.
So could limit yourself, to things that you know about, instead of being a Key Board Warrior.
It doesn’t matter who is in danger , the RNLI will help them because that’s what they’re there for.
I would like to say that I was astonished by the lack of sympathy shown by some people on threads like this, but such hostile comments are so common here that I’m not even surprised.
Marva that boat was in no danger and it is NOT the job of the RNLI to escourt illegals to the shores of this country.
Please explain how you know that the migrants’ boat “was in no danger”.
NO
Perhaps if you watched more TV news and didn’t listen to the radio so much you would see what happens instead of relying on other people to tell you all the time
It’s always other people who tell us the news!
Marva answer Tripods question we’d all be interested to know who you’d save
I answered Tripod’s question yesterday at 3.40pm.
It’s always other people who tell us the news,one way or another!
Marva If other people don’t tell us the news who else is going to You? I can imagine what it would read like today(Mon) a pile of dog poo was spotted on an inflatable off the Ramsgate coast a bedraggled looking dog was seen floating on another the reporter did not know what to rescue dog or poo but the reporter is torn because she dislikes dogs and she dislikes their poo even more the thinker is really going to think about this one hard.Would she leave the dog to die? only Marva knows
What on earth is Lesley Peeling going on about? Can someone clarify her comment?
I’m taking the pee Marva Rees no sense of humour
‘Rwy’n falch iawn fy mod yn Gymraeges.
Whoever the owners of the boat are should be made to pay the costs of being rescued! Its too easy for no nothing idiots to buy an inflatable, or any old boat, chuck it into the sea, without any sailing ability, get into trouble, then expect to be rescued, for free! Duuurh! Make them pay for their stupidity!
I agree with Dumpton.