The volunteer crew of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution’s Barry Dock Lifeboat were called to search an extensive area of the Bristol Channel on Thursday 14th at 9:15pm.
The cox’n of the Barry Dock Lifeboat, Hugh ‘Spud’ Davies, said that a weak Mayday signal was heard by the Portland HM Coastguard and it was believed to be in the Bristol Channel area.
HM Coastguard at Swansea immediately launched the Barry Dock Lifeboat to search a large area between Flatholm and Stout Point.
The HM Coastguard Search and Rescue team from Barry were also deployed to search the coastline. After a number of hours the Barry Dock Lifeboat and the HM Coastguard Search and Rescue team was stood down with nothing found.
It is believed that the transmitted Mayday signal may have ‘bounced’ off the St Hilary mast due to the atmospherics at the time.
