Ilfracombe's inshore lifeboat is busy as the summer gets underway

Ilfracombe's D class inshore lifeboat Deborah Brown II has had a busy July so far, especially during the first week of the month when the stations volunteer crew responded to five different incidents in six days. The incidents ranged from tidal cut offs to abandoned kayaks, illustrating the diverse nature of the shouts the charity's inshore lifeboats respond to during the busy summer season.

Two of the shouts were to people cut off by the tide. On Tuesday 28th June at around 5pm the volunteer lifeboat crew were called to Combe Martin to reports of two people stranded by the incoming tide. The local Coastguard were also on the scene and just before the lifeboat arrived the two casualties had managed to swim ashore by themselves.

At about the same time on Saturday 2nd July, they launched to assist two people cut off by the tide to the east of Lynmouth. Because of the breaking surf, the lifeboat stayed back from the shoreline and one crew member swam ashore to assist the casualties. The lifeboat quickly moved closer and the two people were helped to wade out and climb aboard before being transported, unharmed but wet to Lynmouth harbour.

The crew had already been out at 6am that morning to assist ambulance crew treating a casualty who'd fallen and broken a rib on Broadsands beach. With the only access to the beach via 200 very steep steps it was decided that the best method of evacuation was by sea. The lifeboat was able to take the casualty round to Ilfracombe to a waiting ambulance.

At around 5.30pm On Sunday 3rd July volunteer crew were paged after a report of a kayak being washed ashore at Watermouth. A local boat had recovered the kayak so on arrival, the lifeboat crew started a search for its owner. After more information from the coastguard established that the kayak had been drifting for some time the lifeboat returned to station. Keen to avoid a call out of the same nature the crew picked up two children's inflatable dinghies that had been blown out to sea with no one aboard on route.

At around 10.40pm on the Sunday night the inshore lifeboat launched again. This time to the three occupants of a fishing boat whose first trip out had turned bad when the boat had broken down off Rillage Point. The lifeboat crew located the casualty 1.5 miles to the west of the point rapidly drifting further in the tide. The boat had suffered main engine failure and the auxiliary engine they were using as a back up had fallen overboard. Left with no means of getting back to the harbour they dropped the anchor but the strength of tide started to pull the boat under so they were forced to cut the anchor away and were quickly drifting in the current. The lifeboat crew attached a tow and brought the casualty back into Watermouth Harbour. 

Despite their busy month, Ilfracombe RNLI crew still found the time to put on a great show at the RNLI Summer Splash Rescue Display on the 10th July.

 

Leigh Hanks, Ilfracombe's RNLI Mechanic says; "The D class lifeboat is perfectly suited to operating closer to shore and in shallower waters or amongst cliffs and rocks and the volunteer lifeboat crew undergo specific training in boat handling around these areas. The summer season is typically busier for the crews as people increasingly spend their time taking part on leisure activities on or near the water.A good number of these shouts are to people who've been cut off by the tide, to avoid this we'd recommend checking the tide times at the start of the day, these are available at the local lifeboat station or harbour office."