Thanks to Mark from Sandown and Shanklin Independent Lifeboat for sharing this news and reminding us of the importance to call the coastguard if we see anything at sea that looks worrying. Ed
The Sandown & Shanklin independent Lifeboat was paged by the Solent Coastguard on Thursday at 16.23 to several 999 reports of a lime green parachute drifting through the Sandown Bay.
Due to the amount of calls they asked for an immediate launch and to start searching ¾ of a mile north of Sandown pier, after searching for 15 minutes a call was made to the coastguard from the man that had lost his lime green surfing kite. He said that he’d lost it off Yaverland as the wind was taking him out to sea and he feared for his own safety.
We would like to thank this gentleman for his swift actions on reporting the loss of his surf kite as we could have been searching for many hours and also to the many people who reported this to the coastguard.
If you see something suspicious, call the coastguard
As this is a new year we ask all the public if they see something at sea that does not look right please report it to the coastguard on 999.
This was also our first call for the New Year and would like to thank the many generous people that have donated and raised money for the Sandown & Shanklin Independent lifeboat to keep it running all year day and night.
For any further information please call me on 07968673140
