Last night was a busy night for the volunteer crew at Galway Lifeboat Station, who were requested to launch to three incidents in rapid succession.
The first incident occurred shortly after 1am this morning, followed shortly afterwards by two further unrelated call-outs.
The first call-out was requested by the Coast Guard to a research ship on Galway Bay with reports of an unwell crew member on board who required medical evacuation. Conditions were rough at sea with strong winds, which meant that the usual means of transport from the ship to shore were not possible without assistance.
The crew of James Rattigan, Paddy Hennelly, Mark Purcell and helm Declan Killilea launched the lifeboat, with Eoghan Donohue as shore crew, and were under way to the ship’s location shortly before 1.30am when a second call for assistance came in from the Coast Guard. The crew were initially diverted and later stood down from that shout when additional reports came in that a 33ft sailing boat with two sailors onboard, who had been expected to arrive home in the evening, were well overdue. The family members of the two people on board the sailing boat had not been able to make contact with them for a number of hours and had raised the alarm.
The sailing boat had been heading to Renville, County Galway and its location was picked up on radar off Black Head in County Clare. The lifeboat and crew made way to the area to check on the welfare of the sailors and, at around 2.40am, located the sailing boat and the two sailors on board who were making their way slowly up the Clare coast. The sailors were both well. They had encountered rough weather along the way and had lost all comms, but were safe and the lifeboat crew were able to relay this information to the Coast Guard, who informed the families.
The lifeboat crew then left the sailing boat and headed to the research ship, which was in the area of inner Galway Bay near Mutton Island. The crew member who was unwell was transferred to the lifeboat at around 3am and the lifeboat returned to the pontoon at the lifeboat station where the casualty was handed over to the care of the National Ambulance Service.
The lifeboat crew then returned to check on the progress of the sailors who were around 1 mile from their destination and the lifeboat and crew accompanied the sailing boat until it was tied up at moorings at Renville. The lifeboat crew then brought the two sailors on board the lifeboat and transferred them to shore and back to the waiting families.
Peter Navan was the launch authority on call for Galway RNLI last night. "It was quite an unusual evening to say the least with three different call outs in such quick succession," he said. "But it is the sort of scenario that we are trained for, not just in terms of the skills and experience of the lifeboat crew but also the decision making and risk assessment required when there are three incidents taking place almost simultaneously. Our mission is to save lives at sea so the highest priority is always someone who is in the water or at risk of getting into trouble in the water.
"We were in continuous contact with the Coast Guard getting updates, which helped to prioritise the order in which the lifeboat crew attended each of the incidents. We also had ongoing contact with the research ship to monitor the welfare of the ill crew member. In fact the research ship was able to provide the Coast Guard with an initial radar contact for the overdue sailing boat, which was in turn relayed to our lifeboat and that was a huge help for our third call out last night.
"The evening was an example of the excellent co-operation between all the agencies involved in search and rescue in Galway including ourselves, the Irish Coast Guard, the Galway Fire and Rescue Service, An Garda Síochána, the National Ambulance Service and indeed the supportive maritime community here in the west," he added. "We are very happy that everything went as well as it could and it was a really positive outcome all around.
"No one ever goes to sea planning for something to go wrong. But sometimes it does. Last night highlighted the importance of calling for help when you get into trouble on the water or if you think someone may be in trouble. Always have a means of calling for help and let people know where you are going and what time to expect you home so that they can raise the alarm if something goes wrong.
"If you do get into difficulty or see someone in difficulty in the water, please dial 999 or 112 and ask for the Coast Guard.
"It was a long night for our crew but it is what we are trained for and the reason why our volunteers will get out of bed in the middle of the night, not knowing what to expect but always ready and willing to respond when their pagers go off."
