Three grown men had to be rescued from the sea after the giant inflatable duck they were riding started to head out to sea. Strong tides and off-shore breezes in the Bristol Channel made sailing the huge grinning yellow duck a supremely dangerous venture.
The men had been blown off shore after taking the inflatable out to sea and had to be towed back to safety. It was the quick-thinking actions of a paddleboarder and the volunteers of Appledore RNLI who were already out of an exercise that averted a potential disaster when the duck ended up 200m out to sea and its crew were unable to get it back to shore.
Appledore RNLI said: “It is so dangerous to take inflatables out to sea, as an incident at Westward Ho! goes to prove. Last night, Tuesday 4 June, the volunteers of Appledore RNLI were out in both their inshore and all-weather lifeboats on their normal Tuesday night training exercise, when they were tasked by the Coastguard to divert to Westward Ho! Beach following a report from public that an inflatable with three people onboard appeared to be drifting offshore.”
