From this morning Sandy Bay, Teignmouth and Dawlish Warren will have Lifeguards on them from 10AM to 6PM untill the Sunday 6th September.
There is a press release from the RNLI talking about the increased Lifeguard patrols featured on the BBC news website here.
Remember if you are going to a Lifeguarded beach swim between the red and yellow flags, don’t go in the water if you see a red flag flying and stay between the black and white flags if you are surfing.
The weather never really got fantastic in Exmouth this weekend with the odd shower keeping the numbers of people on the beach down.
Saturday was the busier day for the Lifeguards in Exmouth. We had the RWC patrolling on the water for 3 hours in the afternoon due to the strong outgoing tide. Whilst the RWC was on the water 2 kite surfers were assisted when they were struggling to relaunch their kites from the water. It seems this year the kite surfers have got a lot better and are not needing as much assistance from us, which is great. The Duck pond area is a better place to learn to kitesurf than Exmouth sea front and it seems beginners are staying in the duck pond.
Also whilst out on patrol I was waved down by a jet ski just off the entrance to the docks. They had broken down and were drifting out with the tide, the boats coming in to the estuary and kitesurfers were having to dodge the unpowered craft. I stood by them until Exmouth ILB was launched. The ILB towed the jet ski back to their trailer up the river.
It is important to always wear a lifejacket and take a means of communication with you when out on any craft, a mobile phone or preferably a VHF radio is best, so if you do get in to trouble you have a way of contacting the Coastguard.
Tomorrow is competency testing for the peak season Lifeguards. All the new Lifeguards who start patrolling full time on Saturday will do a competency test involving board and tube rescues and demonstrate CPR.
Teignmouth, Dawlish Warren and Sandy Bay will have Lifeguards on the beach 10am to 6pm from this Saturday 4th July until September.
We were lucky enough this week to have the Sector Manager from the Coastguard come down and talk to us.
He gave us a bit more information about the general role the Mobile Coastguard Units.
He then went on to talk to us about pyrotechnics. We had to deal with a flare washed up on the beach a few weeks ago so this was a very worthwhile session.
We learnt about the different types of flares and the dangers associated with them.
Below a photo of “Exmouth Mobile parked up at Budleigh Salterton.
The Lifeguard hut at Sandy Bay was taken out over the winter to be refurbished. Yesterday a 100 tonne crane came to Sandy bay and lifted the hut up and out over the cliff, lowering it in to the correct position just on the edge of the beach.
Here are a couple pictures of the Sandy bay hut being lowered in.
Lifeguards start patrolling Sandy Bay on 4th July. Also from the 4th of July Teignmouth and Dawlish Warren will have full time Lifeguards. We are lucky this year we have a very large team of Lifeguards to cover Teignmouth, Dawlish Warren, Exmouth and Sandy Bay. The majority of the team have started but 5 more peak season Lifeguards will join the rest of us next week after they have completed some training up at The Lifeboat College in Poole.
Today one of the watches from Exmouth Fire Service came down to the beach in their fire engine to offer safety advise along with the RNLI Lifeguards and Exmouth Beach Rescue Volunteer Club to members of the public on the beach with Barbeques. Hot barbeques can present a few dangers. Some of which have occurred at Exmouth.
People often dispose of their barbeques in the nearest bin, which then promptly sets on fire! Do not put hot barbeques in any bin! If you do see any smoke coming from any of the bins call 999 and ask for the Fire Service. Barbeques should also not be used on the dry grass around the dunes which could easily catch alight.
Other dangers associated with barbeques is people getting burnt. People are normally quiet careful of the barbeque its self but the sand around and under the barbeque its self can be very very hot and cause bad burns.
If you do get burnt on the beach seek the attention of the Lifeguards and we will come to you assistance and call for an Ambulance if required.
We are lucky in Exmouth that on the Maer there are designated barbeque areas that have raised metal barbeque platforms which are a good way to have a barbeque in a public space.
Stay safe, happy barbequing while the weather is good!
Some random photographs taken at work.
A selection of Kites over Exmouth Beach.
The Exmouth police boat.
Morris dancers at Teignmouth.
Their mascot.
Looking through my photographs tonight I have a load of random photos of random things. I will upload them and post them up tomorrow.
I worked at Teignmouth today. It was very quiet. The highlight of the day was a large gathering of Morris Dancers behind the Teignmouth North Lifeguard unit. Yes I do have photographs of them!
The past week has been reasonably quiet. We have had a few minor incidents to deal with. There has been RWC training running for two days this week. Exmouth Lifeboat and Exmouth ILB has been out a few times.
A couple of pictures from the week gone by.
RWC training
RWC training.
Exmouth Lifeboat going out to tow a boat in.
The RNLI announced a few days ago that the charity has a new Chief Executive. Andrew Freemantle is retiring as Chief Executive after serving the RNLI for 10 years. He is going to be replaced by Paul Boissier.
Although I never met the last Chief Executive and probably will not meet the new one it is nice to know a little about them. Check out the RNLI press release here
Today the Air Ambulance landed at Dawlish Warren Beach. Unforunately RNLI Lifeguards don’t start full time patrols until 4th July at Teignmouth and Dawlsih Warren. They are patrolling at the weekends until the peak season.
We spoke to the Air Ambulance over our radio and after making sure we had the beach covered in Exmouth I along with another Lifeguard took the RWC over to The Warren to offer assistance to the Ambualnce crews already there and the Air Ambulance. The patient had unfortunatelyhurt her back and the best way to get her off the beach was by Air Ambulance. We arrived at the beach just as the patient was about to be loaded in to the helicopter, which was landed on the beach with its rotas still spinning.
We said hello to the Ambulance Crews and Air Ambulance crew (one of which had shown us around the helicopters a few weeks ago.) checked if there was anything we could do but everything was sorted. We waved goodbye to the helicopter as it backed off the beach over the sea.
Although we didn’t have to do anything to help, we were there if needed and it was great to see the Air Ambulance Land on the beach and experience its down draft again.
No latter than we had confirmed over the radio with the Lifeguards base at Exmouth the incident at the Warren was all dealt with than they tasked us to go and rescue a kite surfer.
The outgoing tide and south-westerly wind had caught the Kite surfer out. He had ended up on conger rocks in front of our hut.
We were back over in Exmouth in minutes and the crew member on the RWC swam to the rocks and helped the Kite surfer pack their kit down. Once all the kite lines were wrapped up in the kite I positioned the RWC alongside the rocks and ferried the kite surfer, their kit and the crew member back to the beach. A text book rescue.
Apart from these two incidents it was quiet on the beach and in the water.
