Portland Coastguard were involved in two separate recovery incidents last night where drinking alcohol could have ended in fatality statistics.
At 11.00 pm. a call to the Operations Room at Weymouth alerted the emergency service to a man who had been recovered from the water in Studland Bay, to a rigid inflatable boat (Rib) by a member of the public before being taken to a nearby moored yacht.
It appeared the man who had been drinking had gone into the water from his own, by now, upturned dinghy, and had been in the water nearly an hour. The man had been returning to his own yacht which was moored in the area.
The skipper of the second yacht had heard the cry for help from the water, and launched his own Rib. The rescue operation was hampered by the thick fog in the area which reduced visibility significantly.
The man, suffering from hypothermia was recovered from the yacht where he had been wrapped in blankets in an effort to warm him up, and taken by Poole lifeboat to Poole to be met by the Poole Coastguard Rescue Team and an ambulance. The incident was considered closed at around 2.00 a.m.
However, at 2.30 a.m. an emergency call was received alerting the Coastguard to a 20 year old very drunk man who had gone into the water at Poole Quay outside a local pub and that someone was trying to rescue him. Within a very few minutes whilst rescue units were being called it became clear the man had been recovered to the quay side – and by lifeboat crewman who were waiting for the Poole lifeboat to return from the earlier incident!
An ambulance was called and the man was taken to hospital to warm up and dry out.
Allan Blake, Duty Watch Manager at Portland Coastguard said
"Clearly in the later incident, if RNLI lifeboat crewmen had not been waiting for their colleagues then there is no doubt that this man would have just become a fatality statistic.
"Drinking and seawater just don’t mix and the coldwater shock to the system can also bring on hypothermia very quickly. I hope that the man, when he finally sobers up, will have the courage to thank those lifeboat officers who saved his life.
"As we saw earlier, alcohol can affect balance and capability, and the leisure fisherman who ended up in the water in Studland Bay will have had the shock of his life to have spent nearly up to an hour wondering if anyone was going to hear his calls. Fortunately they were and we’d like to thank the yacht owner for alerting us and coming to his assistance."
Maritime And Coastguard Agency