Tenby’s RNLI all-weather lifeboat launched on Thursday 4 November at 2:15pm after a coast walker became trapped at Lydstep.
A woman on holiday in the area was walking with her children near the rocks when she became trapped by the incoming tide; the mother became stuck unable to climb to safety.
Luckily the children managed to climb to shore and raise the alarm. Tenby’s RNLI Lifeboat arrived on scene just after the Tenby and Manorbier Coastguard rescue team. The all-weather lifeboat crew launched the smaller onboard ‘Y’ boat and managed to get ashore and climb up to the woman to reassure her and keep her warm with blankets.
The Tenby and Manorbier Coastguard rescue team lowered a team member down fitting a harness and a lifejacket to the woman and lowered her to the water’s edge. Tenby’s inshore lifeboat had been tasked to the scene to get close enough to get the woman aboard and to safety; conditions were such that the inshore lifeboat had to be escorted though the heavy seas behind the all-weather lifeboat. However, when sea conditions deteriorated it became clear that it would be safer to recover the woman by air. The RAF search and rescue helicopter was tasked from Chivenor and airlifted the woman to safety. The lifeboat crew who had got onto the rocks to help were taken back to the station by the inshore lifeboat.
