With the summer sunshine seeing holidaymakers flocking to the beaches, it has also meant a busy time for local rescue services, with lifeboat crews, coastguard teams and the air ambulance involved in a number of incidents around the South Pembrokeshire coastline. "Tuesday was a particularly hectic day, with teams busy all over the 'patch'," said Angela Smith, DPRO at Milford Haven Coastguard. "Several of the calls were false alarms with good intent, involving missing children on Tenby beaches, and swimmers and windsurfers on the Cleddau River." Other 'shouts' have included the rescue of a grandmother who fell on a Saundersfoot beach. The rescue teams went to the aid of the woman who slipped and fell on Monday afternoon. At approximately 4.50 pm, Tenby coastguard team and the resort's RNLI inshore lifeboat attended Glen Beach, where the grandmother, aged 64, from Tonyrefail, Cardiff, on the beach with her grandchild and their dog, had slipped and fallen on sandy rocks. The coastguard team tended her injuries, which included a suspected fractured ankle and lacerations to her arm. Once stabilised, she was taken, on the specially adapted coastguard stretcher, by the coastguard team and crew of the inshore lifeboat from the beach to the cliff top, where she was transferred to an awaiting ambulance and taken to Withybush Hospital for treatment. The grandchild and dog, meanwhile, were reunited with their family staying locally. Airlifted to hospital
Meanwhile, the next day, a woman who fell on Amroth beach was taken to hospital by the air ambulance. The 66-year-old woman from Rhydfelin, Ponypridd, fell backwards down stone steps leading to the top of the seawall. She was climbing up from the beach and was on the last but one step from the top when she slipped and fell on to the pebbles below. After being notified by a member of the public, lifeguards initially provided first aid assistance before raising the alarm. Ambulance and coastguard personnel attended the scene and stabilised the woman. She had sustained injuries to her head, shoulder, back and chest. As a precaution, she was immobilised and flown to Withybush Hospital, Haverfordwest, by air ambulance.
Search for small boat
At the weekend, a full-scale search was sparked for a small boat missing off Wiseman's Bridge. Following a call from a concerned member of the public to the operations Room at Milford Haven Coastguard at 9.55 pm on Saturday, a search by Tenby coastguard team was instigated. The small boat was seen leaving Wiseman's Bridge beach at approximately 2 pm with six persons on board, including a baby, two children and three adults. None of them was wearing a life jacket and there didn't appear to be any emergency equipment on board. At the time of the call to the coastguard station, the vehicle and trailer which brought the vessel to the beach were still unattended in the car park. From inquiries with the police and local visits to nearby ports and harbours, the vessel was found safely tied up at Saundersfoot Harbour. The owner of the vessel, from Robeston Wathen, was spoken to and suitable advice given.
CHILDREN CAUGHT IN RIPTIDE
On the same day, following a report that two young children were in trouble in the water off Freshwater West beach on Saturday evening, coastguard teams from St. Govans and Castlemartin raced to the scene. The RNLI inshore lifeboat from Tenby was launched and the rescue helicopter from Chivenor was tasked. Two young boys, one 11 and the other 13, from Neyland and Pembroke, had been swimming for about 30 minutes when they were caught by the rip tide and could not get back to shore. A lifeguard on the beach saw them in difficulty and swam out to them with a torpedo buoy and assisted them back to the beach where they were checked over by the coastguard teams and reunited with family.