Withernsea RNLI: Family saved after drifting out to sea in dinghy

Volunteer lifeboat crew were called out just after midday on Saturday

RNLI crew members have rescued five people, including two children, who were swept almost two miles out to sea in an inflatable dinghy.

The family were not wearing life jackets and had drifted out off Withernsea on Saturday afternoon.

RNLI operations manager Steve Medcalfe said they could have "quite easily" come out of the dinghy and drowned.

In a separate call later that day, crews brought in two teenagers whose dinghy had also drifted out from shore.

Mr Medcalfe said the first call out was treated as "lives saved" because of how far they had drifted out amid strong winds.

He said: "It's flat clam on the beach for the first mile out maybe, but then the wind begins to pick up at sea with white caps which is a breaking surf and they could quite easily been tumbled out and drowned."

'Keeping an eye out'

Mr Medcalfe said some people in the family had been drinking and they did not "understand the seriousness of what had happened".

He added: "They had paddles but that wouldn't have made a wild bit of difference not with the strength of the winds."

Mr Medcalfe said the incident showed the importance of the public "keeping an eye out" and ringing the coastguard.

"We rely on the public to be our eyes and ears and if in doubt, you should always ring the coastguard and report it. There's no such thing as a bad false alarm."

The call outs follow the death of a teenager earlier this month while, two police officers were praised for risking their lives to rescue a woman who was in the sea in Skegness in the early hours of Saturday.