In an abnormal year due to Covid-19, the two lifeboats went to a ‘normal’ number of incidents but 60% of these were concentrated in the summer with twenty in late May-June following the lifting of the first lockdown.
The fine weather meant lots of people on the beaches and we searched for twenty missing children, all found safe and well. We helped kite surfers, windsurfers, paddle boarders and kayakers, plus two jet skis. Nine yachts ran aground and a speedboat drove at speed up the shore causing a subsequent argument. Yacht tenders/dinghies had engine problems, went adrift and more seriously capsized with the occupants’ needing help especially when they didn’t have life-jackets on! Four motor boats and a yacht had engine problems, and two yachts developed a leak and one of these in November sank on its mooring but we rescued the skipper and his two cats. We got to two walkers and their dog just in time when they were cut off by the tide, and plucked two swimmers to safety found hanging onto Eastoke Buoy in cold November seas. Perhaps the most serious incident was when six young folk capsized in a Rib in waves off Hayling but all were OK after treatment.
So in a year when thirty-eight people were saved and we have stayed operational throughout, we hope for a better 2021 for our brave crew members and all our supporters.