The IRT were called out to a report from a member of the public that a group of teenagers were swimming off the slipway at the Mowlem. This would not normally a problem but its November, and it was 20:15 so cold and dark.
One accidental slip and quick bop on the head and it’s a drowning.
The Ops Room at Portland, who have great local knowledge, knew exactly where to task us and explained it was a precaution rather than ‘an immediate’.
So we deployed and kept in contact with the Ops Room on Channel 00 (The Coastguard VHF Channel)
The five girls were all fine and were basically just messing round (and no they weren’t drunk). We explained that it had taken 7 minutes from the call to get to them and that if one was drowning that 7 minutes would probably cost a life. They were local and very polite and after a 5 minute chat understood the risks and apologized for any trouble. No trouble really, we just want people to be safe.
Given they were young adults the team took the view there was no need to take details and contact parents. The girls went off to enjoy the rest of their Friday night safely, while Brian and Gareth went back to station.
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