19th Sep: Incident at Lepe

I arrived at the station with my companion watchkeeper to find an incident in progress.  We were told that, in the force 5 to 6  winds a motor cruiser had lost power off Lepe beach.  As the watchkeeper was informing HMCG of concern about the drifting boat,  a woman windsurfer approached the boat, and then looked towards the station and gave the 2 arms waving distress signal.  Thus the concern was escalated to an incident and the Coastguard tasked Hamble Lifeboat.

By the time the lifeboat arrived the casualty was in the surf on Lepe Spit and the lifeboat could not get close due to the shallow water depth.  Lifeboat crew members waded to the Spit and using the boats anchor line, a line brought by a Lepe Ranger, and the lifeboats tow line joined together, they managed to tow the boat off.  This was in progress as we arrived.  A watchkeeper was at the Spit reporting by UHF to the station which was keeping HMCG informed.  My companion went to the Spit to relieve my companion, but the incident was more or less over.  The boat was towed to Cowes and the incident closed.

Afterwards I wished I’d taken some photos.  The trouble is that with an incident in progress and the need to change over the watch I was concentrating more on what needed to be done in the station, rather than taking photos of what was happening outside.

Later in the day with the winds at force 6 gusting 7 the Paddle Ship Waverley appeared amongst the mist off Gurnard.  To my surprise she steamed as far as East Lepe, then rounded the buoy and appeared to set course for Southampton.  Apparently it was a Paddle Ship Preservation Society members cruise around the Isle of Wight which presumably had been cut short due to the weather.  We had wondered why there were so few people on board.