Sleeping kayaker sparks midnight St Mary’s RNLI search

A kayaker was fast asleep on board his yacht in the small hours of Wednesday morning, with no idea that a lifeboat crew was out on the dark water searching for him.

An alarm at quarter to one

The pagers at St Mary’s RNLI Lifeboat Station sounded at 0045 on 13 August. A friend of the kayaker had raised the alarm after failing to get a message confirming he had made it safely back to his yacht, and feared he might be missing.

The yacht was last reported to be in St Helen’s Pool, off the Isles of Scilly. Because of the state of the tide, the lifeboat could not take the direct route and instead went round to the west of the islands to reach it.

A search of St Helen’s Pool

Once at the entrance to St Helen’s Pool, the lifeboat could go no further in. The crew launched the smaller Y boat to search the water for the yacht.

Found safe and asleep

The yacht was found at the eastern end of the Pool. The kayaker was on board, safe and sound, and fast asleep, oblivious to the search going on around him. He had simply not been able to get a message to shore to let anyone know he was back.

With everyone accounted for, the Y boat returned to the lifeboat and was recovered. The lifeboat then made its way back to its moorings by the same route it had taken out, and the crew were ashore by 0150.

It was the eighteenth RNLI shout of 2026 for the Scilly station. The volunteer crew on the service were Pete Hicks, Jimmy Hoddinott, Paul Smith, Dan May, Chris Jenkins, Phil Roberts and Ben Jenkins.

📷Credit: St Mary's RNLI Lifeboat Station