As I live on the coast it is the obvious place to take 'Cookie' my little dog for a walk, so each morning about 06.30 we follow a campo trail down to the beach, as she chases rabbits I am having a whinge to myself about my painful foot but we both need the exercise.
On the beach I normally sit on a land marker and watch the sun come up, today was no different when I noticed what looked like someone in the sea, the only reason they caught my eye was they were waving a torch, I looked around me and there no one else about, I carry a torch and waved back. The light being flashed and waved was definitely being shone in my direction, I am now having an internal brain decision fight, is it someone sodding about or a genuine emergency, I have been to this beach hundreds of times, there are no marker buoys here so it must be a person, do I ignore and read in tomorrow's paper's of a body being washed up, or call 112?
Scuba divers do use this beach but I can see no obvious kit or vehicles about, I am into scuba and went for the latter. 112 gets you through to the multilingual emergency services, in less than 10 minutes, a police car blue lights flashing arrived with two officers, and as it did the person along with the light disappeared! I felt a right dick pointing to nothing in the middle of the sea, all of a sudden one of the officers said he could see something, sure enough the person was was back and still waving, he grabs his radio and rattles off something like he can see a person in the water.
My phone rings and it is the coastal rescue telling me in perfect English they are about to dispatch a rescue crew to the area, this quiet little cove is now being illuminated by no less than 5 local police cars, a Gaurdia Civil 4x4, and an emergency response ambulance! There are officials everywhere, some climbing rocks to get a better view, powerful hand held torches being pointed at the person as they are drifting from right to left when the person disappeared again!
Eventually the person comes back into view but now no longer with a light, and is being carried along with the current at some rate, binoculars are being trained on the person, and just before the helicopter is dispatched the person was identified as a fishing buoy!!
Yep, I am so glad I did not say it was a person but 'looked' like a person in trouble, and the fact the officers also saw the 'person' made me feel a little more relieved it was a false alarm, and genuinely relieved that someone was not drowning.
The final explanation was it was a professional fishing buoy that was supposed to be anchored at some considerable distance out at sea to indicate the presence of fishing nets, it had somehow broken free of it's anchor perhaps during the recent storms, and drifted towards the shore. The 'waving arm' was in fact a metre tall mast with a light, the light goes on or off depending on ambient light, a vessel was sent out to retrieve it due to it being a navigation hazard.
The real thing that struck me though was the response from the emergency services in our little town, you rarely see them but it was good to know they are there and really on the ball, a pat on the back all round.
I made my apologies but was reassured they were happy to find out it was a false alarm, and there was agreement they would have done the same, as the object really did look like the head and shoulders of a person.
So that's my good deed for the day........well sort of.
Regards
Dave
On the beach I normally sit on a land marker and watch the sun come up, today was no different when I noticed what looked like someone in the sea, the only reason they caught my eye was they were waving a torch, I looked around me and there no one else about, I carry a torch and waved back. The light being flashed and waved was definitely being shone in my direction, I am now having an internal brain decision fight, is it someone sodding about or a genuine emergency, I have been to this beach hundreds of times, there are no marker buoys here so it must be a person, do I ignore and read in tomorrow's paper's of a body being washed up, or call 112?
Scuba divers do use this beach but I can see no obvious kit or vehicles about, I am into scuba and went for the latter. 112 gets you through to the multilingual emergency services, in less than 10 minutes, a police car blue lights flashing arrived with two officers, and as it did the person along with the light disappeared! I felt a right dick pointing to nothing in the middle of the sea, all of a sudden one of the officers said he could see something, sure enough the person was was back and still waving, he grabs his radio and rattles off something like he can see a person in the water.
My phone rings and it is the coastal rescue telling me in perfect English they are about to dispatch a rescue crew to the area, this quiet little cove is now being illuminated by no less than 5 local police cars, a Gaurdia Civil 4x4, and an emergency response ambulance! There are officials everywhere, some climbing rocks to get a better view, powerful hand held torches being pointed at the person as they are drifting from right to left when the person disappeared again!
Eventually the person comes back into view but now no longer with a light, and is being carried along with the current at some rate, binoculars are being trained on the person, and just before the helicopter is dispatched the person was identified as a fishing buoy!!
Yep, I am so glad I did not say it was a person but 'looked' like a person in trouble, and the fact the officers also saw the 'person' made me feel a little more relieved it was a false alarm, and genuinely relieved that someone was not drowning.
The final explanation was it was a professional fishing buoy that was supposed to be anchored at some considerable distance out at sea to indicate the presence of fishing nets, it had somehow broken free of it's anchor perhaps during the recent storms, and drifted towards the shore. The 'waving arm' was in fact a metre tall mast with a light, the light goes on or off depending on ambient light, a vessel was sent out to retrieve it due to it being a navigation hazard.
The real thing that struck me though was the response from the emergency services in our little town, you rarely see them but it was good to know they are there and really on the ball, a pat on the back all round.
I made my apologies but was reassured they were happy to find out it was a false alarm, and there was agreement they would have done the same, as the object really did look like the head and shoulders of a person.
So that's my good deed for the day........well sort of.
Regards
Dave
They should be arrested and charged.
