It’s reported a bank holiday weekend of treacherous conditions kept the Whitstable lifeboat crews working around the clock, culminating in multiple dramatic rescues, including stranded yachts and casualties cast adrift at sea.
A relentless sequence of events began on Bank Holiday Monday evening when the lifeboat was scrambled to rescue three paddleboarders stranded 300 yards off Tankerton, with one casualty already plunged into the water. Despite the peril, all three remarkably declined assistance once located, allowing the crew to return to station.
By Thursday night, the crew’s volunteer lifesavers were back at sea, successfully intercepting two drifting crafts near the old Herne Bay pier head and safely landing four distressed individuals into the care of the Coastguard.
The emergency deepened on Friday evening with two rapid-succession launches to reports of people trapped in the water, though the lifeboat was ultimately stood down as emergency services secured the casualties ashore.
The weekend reached a climax on Saturday afternoon when Lewisco was launched to assist a Wanderer class yacht with a torn sail in The Swale which was unable to ‘make way’. Another Wanderer that had been towing the yacht had also had problems making headway and the pair of craft once located were taken under tow back to Whitstable.
Having returned the two craft to the shore the lifeboat was given a further ‘tasking’ when Dover Coastguard requested the lifeboat to assist a yacht with 3-persons onboard needing assistance off Sheerness. The Sheerness D-Class lifeboat put a crew member on the yacht who assisted in taking the vessel to a mooring buoy. Two of the people onboard the yacht were unwilling to continue with the journey so were taken off by the Whitstable lifeboat.