Last weekend saw a joint Bude and Appledore RNLI night time rescue for an overdue climbing party. Info is from Bude RNLI:
At 10.21pm on the evening of Friday 21st April, Bude’s inshore lifeboat ‘George Bird’ launched together with Appledore’s relief all weather lifeboat ‘Victor Freeman’ to locate and extract four climbers whose return was reported to Falmouth coastguard as overdue following a climb on Lower Sharpnose cliffs between Morwenstow and Bude.
The Appledore crew members were tasked to provide lighting to the cliffs and assist as necessary with the recovery of the climbers. Bude and Hartland coastguard teams were also tasked to provide land based aspects of the rescue.
Bude’s inshore lifeboat arrived on scene and performed a shoreline search starting at Lower Sharpnose point and proceeded north. They located the climbers at Higher Sharpnose Point below Hawkers Hut. The climbers had lit a fire on the beach to highlight their location spotted by the Bude and Hartland land-based coastguard teams who provided additional support and lighting.
With a dropping tide, Bude’s lifeboat crew were able to land on the beach where they safely extracted the casualties and their climbing gear. Appledore’s Tamar class lifeboat arrived on scene to provide extra lighting for the rescue.
Bude’s crew transferred the casualties to the larger Appledore lifeboat for the journey back to Bude, in tandem with the Bude lifeboat, which then ferried the casualties, and climbing gear, to shore where they were assessed and warmed up with a cup of tea in the lifeboat station.
The Appledore crew returned home coming ashore at 4 o’clock the following morning.
Bude’s lifeboat operations manager Liam Sharpe commented: ‘Fantastic work from Appledore’s crew for making the return passage to Bude less cramped and more comfortable for both Bude’s crew and the causalities.
Thank you to Bude and Hartland’s coastguard teams for your support’.
Sounds like great work by all involved.