Busy time for Wells lifeboat crew

Chris Hill The Wells lifeboat crew survived an exhausting time involving a rescue, a training exercise and a fundraising presentation within the space of a few hours yesterday.

Chris Hill

The Wells lifeboat crew survived an exhausting time involving a rescue, a training exercise and a fundraising presentation within the space of a few hours yesterday.

It began with an emergency call from Great Yarmouth Coastguard at 2.38pm, which saw the inshore lifeboat launched eight minutes later to rescue a woman with three dogs, who were cut off by the tide near the Stiffkey outfall pipe.

Helmsman Kevin Parr's crew helped the woman and her dogs aboard and brought them to the safety of the onshore coastguard unit at Stiffkey at 3.33.

The lifeboat crew then checked on another person spotted on the sandbanks but, with no help needed, they returned to the station by 4.17pm.

Just an hour later, the lifeboat crew mustered again for a training exercise with the station's all-weather lifeboat, the 12m Mersey class Doris M Mann of Ampthill.

In addition to that exercise, RNLI coastal staff were at the station in the evening to undertake crew fitness assessments.

The station also hosted a party from the Union Masonic Lodge, the oldest in Norfolk, which had held a Ladies Night fundraising ball where a visit to the Wells lifeboat base was one of the lots auctioned in aid of charity.

Ladies Night organiser and the lodge's past master Steve Bennington presented a cheque for �650 to Captain Chris Hardy, lifeboat station operations manager.

Following the earlier emergency, Mr Hardy reiterated a warning for coastal visitors to check tide times before venturing across the sand at low water.

“It is imperative that people should check the tide times before setting out for a walk and ensure that they can get back to the mainland before being cut off by the tide,” he said.