Angle’s RNLI all-weather and inshore lifeboats were called out late on Saturday night (17 April) to evacuate a man, with a suspected heart attack, from a yacht at Landshipping, in the upper reaches of the Milford Haven Waterway.
The Tamar class lifeboat Mark Mason (commanded by Staff Coxswain Lee Firman, accompanied by volunteer crew members Danny Richards (Second Coxswain), Adam Seaton and Mervyn Lunn (Assistant Mechanics), Derek Richards and Jo Lynas) and the ILB Richard John Talbot Hillier (volunteer crew members, Mark Lynas and Mark Roch (Helmsmen), and Mike Young) were launched at 11.40pm, at the request of HM Coastguard.
When they reached the scene, the casualty was transferred to the Mark Mason, together with his daughter and three grandchildren. The man’s condition worsened, however, and he was taken to Lawrenny, where an ambulance was waiting to rush him to Withybush Hospital, Haverfordwest.
The Mark Mason returned at 2.45 am to Angle lifeboat station, where a crew member took the man’s daughter and grandchildren by car to Withybush Hospital. The station’s inshore lifeboat had attempted to transfer paramedics to the yacht, but was unable to do so because of the rapidly-falling tide. As a result, her crew had to wait for the tide to turn before returning to Angle at 7am.
