Polruan Coastguard’s message after a Lantivet Bay paddleboard search

You spot two people on a paddleboard a long way out, and the sea does not look like it is going to let them back in. Do you ring it in, or do you watch a bit longer and hope you are wrong? Someone on the south coast of Cornwall faced that on Saturday afternoon, and what they decided to do is exactly what the rescue teams want people to do.

Tasked to Lantivet Bay at 15:31

Polruan Coastguard was tasked to Lantivet Bay at 15:31 on Saturday, following a report of a paddleboard with two people on board struggling with the conditions. The team logged it as its twentieth tasking.

Fowey RNLI was dispatched quickly as the water asset, which put a boat on its way to the scene while the volunteers were still travelling.

Eyes from the land

The team made its way to the bay and then up onto higher ground, so the search had a view from the land as well as a boat on the water. It is a simple split and it works. One crew reads the sea from sea level, another looks down on it from above, and between them a small object in a lot of water stands a much better chance of being found.

Already back on shore

After a thorough search of the area it became apparent that the two people on the paddleboard had made their way safely back to shore. Nobody needed pulling out of the water. By the time the search was underway, the situation it was launched for had already resolved itself.

Why the call still counted

That is the point where a lot of people would start to feel a bit daft about dialling 999. The team went out of its way to say the opposite. A call to the coastguard buys time, and time is the thing a search cannot make more of once it is behind.

“The 999 call to the Coastguard was absolutely the right thing to do and was made with the best intention and allowed the team time to prepare for what could have been a vital intervention,” the team said.