Dinghy drifting off Morte Point near Ilfracombe

[Bunchats]

Has anybody lost a dinghy. Appledore and Ilfracombe lifeboats were tasked today to search for someone who may have fallen out of their dinghy, which was found off Morte Point near Ilfracombe.

The dinghy had sandwiches on the seat, they were somewhat stale indicating made yesterday or possibly late the night before.

The dinghy is now in Ilfracombe c/o RNLI.

Hope there is not bad news.

 

[graham]

Re drifting dinghy.

Lets hope theres a happy ending to this.

I heard the Coast Guard message .Apparently there was a packed lunch 2 fishing rods and a South Wales news paper aboard dated Friday 13th Aug.

With the northerly winds lately I would suspect it may have drifted across from the Gower area .

Lets hope that it blew away while the owner was ashore.

Its a good idea to put a phone number or postcode on dinghys.And definitely report it if you lose one.

 

[geepee]

From BBC Devon
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-10985905

Men abandon boat in Swansea sparking North Devon search

Two men who got into difficulty while fishing in a dinghy off Swansea sparked a rescue operation in North Devon.

The coastguard was alerted to the green dinghy off Bull Point, North Devon on Friday which contained fishing rods, food and a newspaper, but no occupants.

A helicopter from RAF Chivenor was launched and lifeboats from Ilfracombe and Appledore searched the area.

The search was called-off when it was found that two men rescued from Swansea Bay had left their drifting dinghy.

The men had gone out in the dinghy to go fishing, but had swum 250m back to the shore after getting into difficulty.

The coastguard was alerted to the 22-year-old and 16-year-old men swimming ashore fully-clothed but the dinghy was not retrieved.

Both men were taken to Morriston Hospital but were released unharmed.

 

[trapezeartist]

I heard the call from Swansea CG three times while I was out on the water yesterday, so this morning I did a search to find out what had happened.

It seems the original incident was known to the police (two fishermen got into difficulties, lost/abandoned their dinghy, swam ashore) but that didn't get connected to the discovery of the boat off Bull Point for quite some time.

Full marks to the appropriate authorities for getting a search and rescue operation underway pronto.

Rather fewer marks for the coordination of information, which resulted in an unnecessary and expensive search.