Bank Holiday Weekend – Shout on Sunday

Aug 26, 2019

Sunday 25th August started with our usual training and maintenance session down at the boathouse. During the morning, the beaches continued to fill up with holiday makers, visitors and locals, so at the end of the session, crew member Shaun stayed on at the boathouse “on call” because it just felt like one of those days …

And so when the request for us to launch was given at around 14:30, Shaun was already in place. From there, it was a matter of minutes before enough crew were present to launch, in response to concerns about two children on an inflatable, reported to be drifting out to open sea.

At 14:32, a three-person crew of Steve, Shaun and Jo launched an headed off to the location given by the coastguards. After a time spent searching the area without success, reports came through that the children had been towed back to shore by a watchful kayaker.

During their lookout for the inflatable, the crew recognised how busy the beaches were, as well as the offshore coastline which was extremely buoyant with inflatables, families and swimmers. So, once Solent stood us down from the original call out, the team dropped off one team member, then set off for a patrol along the coastline.

Patrolling for safety purposes is something which the crews regularly do at this stage of the tide, particularly along the Cliff End where holiday makers are often caught out by the tide and stranded on the rocks. Happily on this occasion, there was nothing of any concern and no further launch requests from Solent.

By this time, the tide had also come in sufficiently to make recovery of our boat much easier in the context of the beach being so busy with visitors. By 16:00 all crew had returned safety to shore and the latest update we had from Solent was that the children were safely ashore too.

Then it was a matter of cleaning and refuelling the boat, ready in case Bank Holiday Monday proves just as busy. Our volunteers are happy to give up their time to protect the public as much as possible, so before everyone finally left for the day, a plan was put into place for crew members to also be down at the boathouse on Monday at around the time of the incoming tide (from 5 p.m.), just in case.

Don’t forget, if you are enjoying the beach on these lovely sunny days, please be aware of how easily a fun item such as an inflatable can become a real hazard for your children, and be mindful of tides, currents and submerged hazards at our beautiful local beaches.

Remember, if you see someone in trouble at sea, on the beach coastline or on the cliff top, please dial 999 and ask for the Coastguard.

Support from the Community – Coop, Winchelsea Beach

Aug 26, 2019

On one of the busiest weekends of the year, we are delighted to have been invited to the Coop, Winchelsea Beach store. 

The August Bank Holiday is a busy weekend all around, but especially for a retailer whose store is right next door to a much-loved caravan holiday site. So we feel very fortunate indeed to have been able to go along to the store on Saturday 24th August, for a few hours of raising awareness about our work, about beach safety,  and also to promote some of our merchandise and do a little fundraising in our local community. 

This is all part of the continued support we’ve had from the Winchelsea Beach community and from the local Coop. Coop’s Winchelsea Beach store has the Pett Level Independent Rescue Boat as one of its chosen community causes, raising extra funds for us by converting customers’ loyalty points to cash: this has raised a massive £1165 for us over the years.

If you’d like to know more about this, please check out this page.

Being along there with our smaller Tornado boat on this very busy Saturday at the height of the beach season meant we enjoyed plenty of interest from shoppers and donations.

As well as our own stall and collection point at the store entrance, staff also placed a donation bucket by the tills in-store, so that customers could donate their change after shopping, if they wanted to.

And as well as looking after us inside the store, the store manager took care of us  in the heat of the day outside, with lovely bottles of cold water from the fridge to keep us safely hydrated and comfortable – thanks so much, Mark!

And how did we do? Between the donations received and sales of our merchandise, we raised almost £440 which will be safely banked towards our ongoing running costs.

In all, we had a brilliant time and were so well looked after. Thank you so much once again to Coop, the manager and staff at Coop, Winchelsea Beach and to all the shop’s customers who came to chat to us and support us through donations or by buying our merchandise. All support is much appreciated and without such generosity, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do. 

** Of course, although some of our volunteers were along at the Coop store with the smaller inshore rescue boat, we were also very mindful of the busy beaches and potential for a ‘shout.’ Rest assured, our larger Pulfer boat was along at the boathouse, with additional teams available in the event of us being needed. **