At 18:41hrs on the Thursday 3rd of September our watchkeepers were called by Solent Coastguard on VHF Ch00. This channel is usually reserved for communication between Search and Rescue assets. His Majesty’s Coastguard (HMCG) informed NCI Exmouth that they had received a 999 call from a member of the public who had seen a kitesurfer whom they believed to be in difficulty. We were asked to locate the casualty. On using our optics, it could be seen that there were a number of kitesurfers, but none of them looked in distress. We were asked to continue monitoring.
At 18:43hrs we called HMCG and asked for a description of the casualty. We were told he had a red or pink helmet and was with a blue, white and red sail in the kite and they were between the Lifeboat station and Orcombe Point.
We then used our CCTV to locate the area and scanned the region.
At 18:47hrs we were contacted by HMCG who informed us that an off-duty member of the Exmouth Coastguard Rescue Team, who just happened to be walking his dog along the seafront, when he received the pager alert, had seen the casualty and confirmed that the same individual had self rescued and come ashore. No medical assistance was required and we were stood down.
This shows just how all services are woven integrally and coordinated.
