Two kayakers had a narrow escape yesterday, after one of their boats overturned in rough seas off the Penarth Coast. Penarth RNLI lifeboat raced to their rescue in the nick of time, before sea conditions became even worse.
The two kayakers, aged 53 and 27, were out on the water off Lavernock Point – an area of the Bristol channel known as the Ranny which is notorious for its choppy conditions. One of the kayaks overturned, spilling its occupant into the sea, but fortunately, a small, inflatable zap cat small boat noticed the two were in trouble, and managed to get the pair to cling on to the zap cat whilst the coastguard and lifeboat were called.
The volunteer lifeboat crew launched the larger of Penarth’s two boats, – the Atlantic 85 – at 10.45 and Helm Graeme Jones and his crew of Kath Fisher, Sarah Mayer and OwaIn Davies braved strong winds and huge waves to get to the kayakers as quickly as possible. They reached the stranded pair and put both of them plus the kayak that hadn’t capsized on to the boat and transported them to the safety of Penarth lifeboat station where they were checked over by a waiting ambulance crew. Although one of the men had been submerged in the sea, and was suffering from shock and cold, both were unharmed after their ordeal.
Helm Graeme Jones said:
“We did attempt to go back out to sea to recover the capsized kayak, but it was impossible. Those sea conditions were the worst I’ve ever seen – and really quite dangerous. That particular area of the Bristol Channel gets incredibly rough due a combination of wind and tides. We got to kayakers before the conditions became any worse – otherwise it might have been a very different outcome”.
