Don't drink and drown.

Enjoy a drink? It's clear from the blog below that Eric does! He was celebrating a week of hard work he has put in to the Carnival this year (and every year!) - his wife took him home and made sure that he was tucked up in bed soon after.

Sadly two other people who had been out drinking took other courses of action. The IRT had to respond to two separate incidents at 01:45 and 02:40 this morning.

CROs - Patrick and Kitching - callsigns Hotel and Oscar - were firstly called to a distressed lady who was in the water off Swanage Pier. Two Policeman had taken immediate action and commandeered a boat, one ended up in the water pulling her to safety. Frankly if they hadn't intervened I doubt she would have survived; in this case it was a risk worth taking. The Swanage ILB responded and brought everyone back to the lifeboat house where the lady was taken on by South-West Ambulance. The Police helicopter was brought in for support. (I saw the Police getting a lot of verbal abuse from drunks last night, but ultimately they are there for law and order, and public safety - as this incident demonstrated)

The second incident saw a very drunk gentleman who, we were told could not swim, rowing out to a yacht in Swanage Bay with two friends, it was dark and they had no lifejackets. The report was that he had stolen the boat. Swanage Coastguard IRT were dispatched and requested the Swanage ILB to attend. After a brief search the gentleman was found aboard a yacht - given how intoxicated he was the ILB crew decided it would be wise to bring him ashore, rather than let him row ashore later. On landing he was apologetic which ultimately saved him a night in the Police cells, which would not have done his future career any good. The boat was found not to have been stolen.

If only he knew how much danger he put himself in. 

Sadly his friends thought it was funny and were taking photos for Facebook. As a 'local' perhaps this morning he might like to consider presenting himself to the Lifeboat house with a donation to refund their hard work or, perhaps volunteer some time towards Swanage lifeboat week which starts next Saturday.

The money raised helps ensure our lifeboat crews are able to respond to incidents such as this.