Four shouts in one busy week for Ilfracombe lifeboats

The sun is shining, people are back on the water and this Easter week Ilfracombe lifeboats launched to four different emergencies! Boat Stories was there for one of the shouts..

Spirit of Derbyshire on her way within 8 minutes of the pagers sounding!

Followed minutes later by the inshore lifeboat

The pager in Andrew Bengey’s pocket went off while he was explaining how he juggles being volunteer coxswain of the Ilfracombe all weather lifeboat (ALB) with running his accountancy and diving boat businesses. “That could be me going now” he said, “I’ll know in a minute.” If I had a minute before I had to run to jump onboard a life boat, headed who knows where, I’d maybe turn off my laptop, check where my wallet is, definitely go to the loo – but Andrew carried on chatting so I didn’t really expect this to turn into a genuine shout!  Andrew explained that he no longer turns out for the inshore lifeboat (ILB) - the wear and tear of bouncing about on an open boat too rough for him at 53. Then the pager went off again, Andrew got up and with the words ‘see you later’ left the office.  No time wasted on phonecalls to find out what was needed, no stopping to pick up a jacket. By the time I’d put away my notebook and reached the office reception, he was long gone. Something in the tone of that pager must have told him ‘the big boat’ as the receptionist called it was needed.

I drove the few minutes to the harbour careful to let any car behind me pass in case it was an RNLI volunteer rushing to the lifeboat slipway. I needn’t have worried. By the time I got to the harbour, a slightly puffed Andrew (having run from his office) was already aboard with five other crew in full RNLI kit and by the time I parked, the Spirit of Derbyshire was on her way only an incredible eight minutes since that pager had sounded! A few minutes later the inshore lifeboat, Deborah Brown II, with four more crew was hot in her wake.

I walked along the quay past S&P fish shop and saw someone waving from the far cliffs on the Hele side of the harbour. The lifeboat was headed in that direction but as Andrew told me later because of the prevailing wind and the strong swell they had to swing out first to get inshore safely. They went as close to the cliffs as they could to reassure the casualty, while the smaller ILB manoeuvred into the rocks. (The weather wasn’t great – visibility was poor and the swell so bad that over in Appledore they postponed taking the giant barge carrying aircraft carrier parts out over Bideford bar.) The emergency call to the Coastguard was made by a group taking part in the popular and growing sport of coasteering. One of their clients was taken ill while in the water. Becky who was onboard the ILB is also a coasteerer and went into the water with another crew member and out onto the rocks to talk to the group. Because of the swell they decided it was safer to take the casualty around to a small beach to get him onboard the ILB. Out at sea he was transferred to the larger Mersey class boat which with its wheelhouse is warmer and drier, there’s more space to administer first aid and a less bumpier ride home.

In fact the ride home was too short for the casualty who had recovered enough to talk to the crew and was relishing the experience. He was handed over to the paramedics at the lifeboat slip where the launch crew, the coastguard and presumably those volunteers who didn’t get there in time were also waiting. The whole slick operation from the first pager to the transfer to the ambulance took less than half an hour! I spotted harbour master Rob Lawson directing the ambulance which was waiting by Verity back to the lifeboat slip.  I was left totally impressed that ten volunteers with busy working lives from all across Ilfracombe (more if you count the launch crews) could drop whatever they were doing and launch the boats within eight short minutes. (Later I spoke to Maggs Ashton from the diving club who said she’d once been abandoned in a restaurant while her husband answered his pager with no money to pay the bill.) And as anyone who lives in Ilfracombe knows all this while the lifeboat station is being rebuilt ready to receive the new lifeboat.

Casualty safely rescued, lifeboat back in harbour

The crew of the ILB talking to the coastguard & paramedics after the successful rescue

I spoke to the volunteer crews in the few minutes of de-briefing and cameraderie after a successful mission before they all rushed back to their real jobs and lives – one had his pyjamas on under his lifejacket and togs. The job wasn’t over for Andrew. They tied the Spirit of Derbyshire alongside the Sparkling Star (the trawler that stars in one of our films). Andrew had to return later, when the tide allowed, to take the lifeboat back to her temporary mooring and ready her to go out again. It won’t be the Spirit of Derbyshire for much longer. In May Andrew will head to Poole to sail Ilfracombe’s brand new Shannon class lifeboat back to the harbour. Boat Stories will keep you posted on her progress.  

the crew of Ilfracombe AWB minutes after a successful rescue

Meanwhile as I was writing this blog another shout for both lifeboats to some kayakers who’d got into difficulty off Morte Point. They’d gone out paddling on a calm, sunny day and suddenly the tide had turned against them. The Bristol Channel has one of the highest tide races in the world with up to ten metres difference between high and low tide. As Andrew said “there’s an enormous amount of water moving at speed either up or down Channel. One cubic metre of water weighs one ton, and there is far more water than that moving out there. Trying to paddle against that sort of weight will tire out even the strongest and fittest person very quickly, and it is easy for a pleasant day out to turn quickly into a disaster.” Luckily the RNLI was quickly on the scene to bring both kayakers and kayaks into safe harbour. The week started with an attempt to rescue a moored yacht which wasn’t rising – like it should with the tide and ended with the rescue of a yacht and crew off Lee Bay which had engine difficulties and was stranded in a thick sea mist.

I might have told you more about the Ilfracombe RNLI volunteers – like the fact that they have five women in their crew – but my chat with Andrew was cut short as he left the office at a run! If you volunteer for the RNLI you have to be ready to go -  for you never know when or where the next shout will come from. Boat Stories is also following & supporting Clovelly RNLI & Appledore RNLI & of course the volunteers all around our coast. Helmets off to all our brilliant RNLI volunteers!


Appledore lifeboat station's Molly Hunt.