Person in the water possibly requesting help.

Launch No: 345
Craft: Spirit of the Dart. D-702
Saturday, 30 June 2018
Location: West of Blackpool Sands. Start Bay.
Dart lifeboat crewman swims ashore to liaise with the Coastguard
Photo: John Fenton RNLI Dart Lifeboat Press Officer
Dart lifeboat crewman swims ashore to liaise with the Coastguard

Several independent witnesses on Blackpool sands saw a figure in the water waving and possibly requesting help. The person was alone and 100metres off the rocks to the west of Blackpool Sands, off Matts Point. The Falmouth Coastguard tasked the RNLI Dart inshore lifeboat and the Dartmouth Coastguard SAR team to investigate. The lifeboat crew talked to three swimmers in the area as well as a kayaker who had been going past. None required help or had been waving although it is possible that the paddles of the kayaker could have been mistaken for a waving arm in the choppy sea. A lifeboat crewman swam ashore to liaise with the Coastguard and the lifeboat extended its search as far west as Strete Gate before they were tasked to a second incident.

Time

Request Received 5:23pm
Time at incident Deprecated: Implicit conversion from float 0.6833333333333333 to int loses precision in /home/dartlifeboatorg/public_html/launches-detail.php (line 272) 41 minutes
Time to recovery Deprecated: Implicit conversion from float 1.7833333333333334 to int loses precision in /home/dartlifeboatorg/public_html/launches-detail.php (line 272) 1 hour, 47 minutes
Back on Service 7:23pm

Conditions

Sea/River State Slight Chop
Wind Direction East
Wind Strength 11 knots
L345 AIS of Blackpool Sands search and diversion eastwards on L346

Map: trackaship universal

Lifeboat Crew

Buster Hart (Helm)
Will Davis
Haydn Glanvill

Shore Crew

Steve Wallis (Tractor Driver)
Caleb Brown
Yorkie Lomas
Jamie Mathys

Deputy Launch Authority

Station address

RNLI Dart Lifeboat Station
Coronation Park
North Embankment
Dartmouth
Devon TQ6 9RR

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Visitor Centre address

RNLI Visitor Centre
9 South Embankment (Ground Floor)
Dartmouth
Devon TQ6 9BH

Visitor Centre phone number

01803 832423

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