A coastal rescue team responded to four callouts in a little over 21 hours at the weekend.
Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade was called to Blyth, Whitley Bay and twice to Cullercoats between late Saturday night and mid-Sunday evening. Two of the incidents saw volunteers working back-to-back on Sunday morning as they first supported Blyth RNLI as they towed a broken down fishing boat back to harbour, before speeding to Cullercoats Bay where a swimmer was reported in difficulties.
In total volunteers collectively spent 24 hours helping with rescues along a 10 mile stretch of the North East coast. The four callouts brings the number the TVLB has so far responded to since January to 34, and with Easter just a matter of days away it is feared the brigade could break 2021’s total of 45 achieved before the end of April in what was to go on and be the busiest 12 month period in the rescue team’s near 160 year history.
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With the weather for the Easter period currently looking fairly settled and spring like for the North East coast and thousands of holidaymakers expected to descend on Tynemouth, Cullercoats and Whitley Bay, the TVLB’s captain and secretary, Peter Lilley, has issued the following warning: “With no beach lifeguards until the end of May and hopefully some warmer weather, please be careful and stay within your limits.
“If you’re not sure about the sea conditions and whether you can cope with them, don’t go in. The sea isn’t too bad at the moment as the air and sea temperatures are quite close together, so your body doesn’t get quite as big a shock as at some times of the year, but it is still very cold.
“With Easter looking like it’s going to be fairly settled we do expect to see a lot of people heading for the coast. That doesn’t necessarily mean that we will have loads of incidents, but if it looks very tempting to go in the sea, things can sometimes get a little out of hand.”
Peter says the number of callouts the TVLB responds to has been steadily rising for the past five or six years. “We are not the busiest we have ever been, but we are not far off it currently. The most incidents we have ever had by the end of April is 45, and we are on 34 at the moment. You only need a couple more days like we had over the weekend and we’re there.
“There has been article after article about how Tynemouth is such a nice place to come and visit, so that inevitably increases the number of people who come, and when people come things tend to happen through misadventure.”
The TVLB was first called at 11.37pm on Saturday to Cullercoats Bay by HM Coastguard to help with a Northumbria Police incident. Five team members volunteered alongside Cullercoats RNLI and Blyth Coastguard Rescue Team, with one casualty being taken to hospital.
On Sunday the brigade was called at 11.54am as they were helping with a litter pick on Kind Edward’s Bay in Tynemouth. Blyth RNLI was towing a broken down fishing boat back to the Northumberland town’s harbour, where the TVLB helped with mooring the vessel and providing safety information to the stricken crew.
As the Blyth incident was drawing to a close at 12.59pm, the team was asked to immediately head to Cullercoats where a swimmer was reported in difficulties just outside the bay. Cullercoats RNLI was also requested to launch. As the TVLB arrived, the swimmer was helped ashore by a kayaker, and it was confirmed they required no further help.
Then at 8.45pm on Sunday the brigade was again paged along with Cullercoats RNLI to assist police with an incident at Whitley Bay. Six team members volunteered before one casualty was taken to hospital by the police.
