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.”
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Appledore RNLI urges people never to take an inflatable toy into the sea. They have urged people not to repeat the ‘dangerous’ actions on board the inflatable bird, named 'Quacker' by the RNLI crew, reports DevonLive.
Appledore RNLI gave an outline account of the incident on Facebook. They explained how the men had taken the inflatable out to sea, but were blown offshore, and that the paddelboarder had to help tow them back to safety.
Appledore RNLI said: “According to an eyewitness, three men pumped up an inflatable duck and took it into the sea, together with a friend on an inflatable kayak. After only five minutes they had drifted out about 75 meters and the friend in the canoe was trying to push them back to shore, which was not appearing to work. The eyewitness called the Coastguard when the duck was 200 metres off shore with the kayaker clearly unable to help.
“A member of the public immediately went out to them on his paddleboard to help and try to bring the men back to shore. Struggling against the current the man managed to tow the inflatable closer to shore, where the men all jumped out and swam to the beach. The inflatable was immediately blown back out to sea.
“The inshore lifeboat arrived just as the casualties had all made it back to shore safely, and crew member Del Elsemore swam in to check all four were okay.
Mr Elsemore said: "The quick thinking of this member of the public with a paddleboard prevented a nasty situation turning much worse. He was the real lifesaver of the day."
The lifeboats then returned to exercise, complete with ‘Quackers’, their new apprentice crew member.
“With the strong tides and off shore breezes of the Bristol Channel, Appledore RNLI urges people never to take an inflatable toy into the sea. There is no way to control these and they get pulled out from shore within seconds. If any member of the public sees someone getting into difficulty in the water, please, as this eyewitness did, call 999 and ask for the Coastguard.”
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