This in from the Cowes RNLI branch. Ed
Cowes RNLI lifeboat crew broke away from their Christmas festivities to respond to a distress flare fired over the Medina, late Saturday night/ early Sunday morning.
The flare was reported to the Coastguard by two separate 999 telephone calls and also radioed in by a passing yacht. From the witness reports Coastguard estimated the distress flare was fired from an area south of the Folly Inn on the River Medina.
RNLI respond but no sign of vessel in distress
With Simon Hawkins at the helm, the lifeboat responded to the page at 10.45pm Saturday night and after an extensive search of the area found no sign of any vessels in distress. The lifeboat was stood down by Coastguard and returned to station at Shepards Marina at 12:50am early Sunday morning, after more than 2 hours on service.
Mark Southwell, Lifeboat Operations Manager called for people to act responsibly at this time of year. “The Lifeboat crew will always respond to a distress flare and treat it as a genuine emergency”. He added “It would be useful if people thought through the consequences, especially in the run up to Christmas and New Year, as it will inevitably call our crews away from their friends and family”.
