Saturday, 24 November 2007

Our thoughts

Our thoughts today are with the family of three adults who died yesterday when their cabin cruiser capsized on the way out of Whitby harbour. And also with the crew of Whitby lifeboat who had to launch into 'Atrocious conditions' to effect a rescue. They recovered the casualties but all three have since died. Very sad.

Whitby lifeboat crew have a long tradition of facing ferocious weather and yesterday was no exception, 5 metre breaking waves in the harbour mouth are challenging to say the least. Glen, their mechanic, describes it here.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It seems everyone is wondering just why on earth anyone would even contemplate launching a 24ft cabin cruiser out whitby in force 8 and 20ft swells.. Tragic inevitability there. Massive respect to the crew that were forced to take a lifeboat out in those conditions to recover the casualties... What else is there to say really, how could this happen?

The three put themselves in mortal danger and paid the ultimate price. They also put a lifeboat crew in mortal danger too...

Anonymous said...

Perhaps give time for the deceased to be buried and the relatives to mourn, before before you pass armchair judgement on them, Anonymous.

Mark R

lifeboatjohn said...

Thanks for that Mark. Couldn't agree more with what you say.

jg

Anonymous said...

I agree condolence to the families, They will probably always be saying why, rescues and tragic cicumstances as this one is why I have such terrific respect for the lifeboat and coastguard services in every part of the country, Your blog John gives such a good account of the service you provide to everyone of us, with very many thanks to the lifeboats for all your tireless work lv joan