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Published:
May 29, 2008
Coastguards
rescue teenagers swept out to sea in £4.99 dinghies
 Two
teenagers who got swept out into the Bristol Channel in a pair
of dinghies bought for £4.99 were rescued by Coastguards
on Thursday evening (May 29th) after being swept ashore on Brean
Down.
Coastguards
from Burnham-On-Sea and Weston were called out to search for the
pair, pictured here, after they dialled 999 on a mobile phone
to alert the emergency services.
The
pair, Sammy Allison (17) and Tom Carlisyle (16), were visiting
Weston on a half-term holiday trip from Chippenham. They set sail
from close to Weston pier at 1pm after buying their dinghies from
a tourist shop in the resort.
But
they quickly got into difficulty when the tide swept them out
from the shore, across Weston Bay, to Brean Down.
Sammy
said: "We were floating about in the shallow water besides
the pier when we got swept out into the channel. Fortunately,
I was able to direct us towards Brean Down using the dinghy's
paddles."
"We
clambered over the rocks on the Down to the banks of the River
Axe where we tried to find a crossing point to get back to Weston.
We'd walked for ages in the pouring rain and, realising we were
lost, started to get concerned so called the Coastguards."
A
search was launched for the pair by two teams of Coastguards,
who found them seven a half hours after they initially left Weston
beach.
Burnham-On-Sea
Coastguard Officer Steve Bird said: "They set out to have
a fun afternoon and were unlucky to get into difficulty. They
did the right thing in alerting the Coastguard. It's good to see
a happy ending to an incident that could have been turned out
a lot more serious."
RELATED
LINKS:
Burnham-On-Sea Coastguard Web site
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