The lifeguards had been watching the kayakers for a while. It was raining on Pembrokeshire’s Newport Sands, and the only beach goers to keep an eye on were ‘hardcore’ dog walkers. Two men in single kayaks and two children, young girls in a double kayak, were paddling in the Nevern Estuary, about 60m from the shore. But an offshore wind was blowing force 6–8.

John Pangbourne was the Senior RNLI Lifeguard on duty on 5 July 2008. Also on patrol that day was Tom Purnell. It was Tom’s first season as an RNLI lifeguard, and his first day on duty at Newport Sands. A local lad, Tom’s first week had been spent at nearby Poppit Sands, where he had already been a member of the volunteer surf lifesaving club for years.

Tom says: ‘We were keeping an eye on the kayakers and they looked like they were trying to get back to shore. They were struggling and that’s when we realised they needed our help.’ John called Milford Haven Coastguard, saying that further help may be needed, while Tom, aged just 17 at the time, grabbed a rescue board and entered the water.

Decisions

The group was now drifting and the sea state, Tom remembers, was ‘pretty choppy’, with a 1½m swell. He had paddled on his stomach almost halfway to the group when the double kayak capsized, dumping the two young girls in the water. One of the men got out of his kayak to try to help.

When Tom reached them, all four were starting to panic. Prioritising quickly, Tom helped one child onto the rescue board and, telling the men and the other girl to stay calm as he would be back, paddled 100m to the headland of Pen-Y-Bal. Meanwhile, the man who had abandoned his craft was clinging to the upturned double kayak but drifting quickly out to sea.

Leaving the cold and distressed young girl on the rocky headland as he went to rescue her friends was, for Tom, one of the most difficult parts of this rescue. He explains: ‘I was worried about the girl. It was always in the back of my mind that she was on her own and couldn’t see anyone. I had to explain to her not to climb down, and she didn’t have a wetsuit on …’

A sea mist had started to descend, reducing visibility, as Tom took off to help the other girl and the man who had remained in his kayak. Helping the girl into the abandoned single kayak, he asked the pair to paddle to Pen-Y-Bal. He watched to make sure they were making progress before turning his attention to the second man, who was drifting further from the relative safety of the estuary minute by minute.

Now over 1,500m from the lifeguard unit, Tom found the man confused and apparently suffering from shock and hypothermia. He refused to let go of the kayak and get on the rescue board. How could Tom help him? Having spent almost half an hour in the water, making tough decisions in rough conditions, he was relieved to hear the arrival of the Cardigan inshore lifeboat Tanni Grey, with Dan Rogers at the helm.

Life first

An exhausted Tom was hauled onboard the lifeboat first. He already knew the crew from RNLI training exercises and was quick to update them on the casualties. With Fishguard’s Trent class all-weather lifeboat Blue Peter VII also on the way, they judged that the bigger boat could pick up the drifting man, while the smaller and more manoeuvrable B class made best speed towards the three people shivering but safe on the inhospitable rocks of Pen-Y-Bal.

The smaller boat she may have been, but the rigid inflatable Tanni Grey’s draught was still a little too deep to pull up right next to the first girl. The rocks and shallows meant Tom had to go back in the water, fetch her and paddle her back to the lifeboat on his trusty board. Dan recounts: ‘We transferred them both to Fishguard’s lifeboat so they could warm up indoors. The other casualties were waiting in a cove but, because of the submerged rocks, I decided Crew Member Jonny Jones should go into the water attached to a line. He brought them to safety one-by-one.’

Meanwhile Blue Peter VII had successfully picked up the other man and his craft and the Cardigan lifeboat recovered the three other kayaks after their former occupants had been taken care of. Fishguard crew, under Coxswain Andy Lucas, treated and monitored all five for the effects of hypothermia, before handing them over to the Ambulance service.

Despite being cold and frightened the kayakers had sustained no serious injuries. Indeed, their lives had been saved by the teamwork, professionalism, quick thinking and local knowledge of the lifeguards and lifeboat crews involved. Or, in the words of RNLI Chairman Admiral The Lord Boyce in a letter to Tom, their ‘dogged tenacity, initiative and skill’.

Tom is now back on patrol in RNLI kit, having spent the Winter in Canada training to be a ski instructor. He starts university in the Autumn, studying for a degree in product design. Bangor’s prospectus boasts that the course prepares one for ‘a career where you can make a difference’. On the beaches of Pembrokeshire, Tom, with the help of his neighbouring lifeboat crews, already has. (Find out more about lifeguarding skills on pages 6 and 34.)