When sisters Emily and Lydia visited Newborough Beach in north Wales on a blustery February day, they had no idea they’d end their trip on Trearddur Bay’s lifeboat

Getting cut off by the tide is an incredibly easy mistake to make, and it happens to a lot of people around our coasts every year. The UK and Ireland have some of the biggest tidal ranges in the world; changes in depth between high and low water can be as much as 10m. On this particular day, 13 people were caught out at a place where the high tide creates an island. Lydia, 9, describes the end of a lovely day on the Llanddwyn Island, playing tag and looking for shark eggcases: ‘We went up the red and white lighthouse and found these little wooden houses, and had dinner in the little porch. Then some people said: “We can’t get out” and when we looked there were no stepping stones. Big black clouds were coming so Daddy said we should stay on the island in the shelter to keep dry. Mummy was a bit worried and Emily was a little bit panicking that we wouldn’t get across.’ While they were waiting on the shore, keeping the girls occupied with games, three people on the mainland had noticed the group’s predicament and called the Coastguard. The girls’ mum Anna recalls: ‘We knew we had to wait for the tide to drop so we were all together in the shelter but I was concerned about how to judge when it was safe to go. When the Coastguard arrived on the other side and the lifeboat came around the headland we thought it was a training exercise! We joked that we’d get to watch the lifeboat while we waited – we didn’t realise they would come out for us.’
For Anna, getting stranded came as a shock: ‘All of a sudden I was stranded in this situation with my children. I felt extremely grateful but also irresponsible for creating this situation – although I did feel a little better when I learned that one of the people rescued with us was a former lifeboat crew member!’ Crew Member Sion Owen recalls how the group hadn’t wanted to bother them: ‘They thought the tide would turn in an hour and that they could wade across then. I had to tell them it would be late and that it would be dangerous to cross in the dark because the sand there is soft and – in 3 feet of water – you’d be gone.’ Helm Daf Griffiths recalls a challenging shout: ‘The minute it gets dark it’s a treacherous bit of coast to be crossing back, so we needed to get them off quickly. Where it shallows out around the island, the waves build up and break so it’s hard to get in there, but I was more concerned about getting out. You’ve got to thread through the rocks while hugging the corner and a spring tide hides hazards.’ According to Daf, the family did the right thing, staying where they were: ‘They were already wet and in for a 4-hour wait. Once it starts to get cold and dark, kids can get upset and, in the stress, poor decisions can be made. If they’d tried to cross the channel, they could have been swept out.’ To thank the crew for rescuing them, Emily sent a special drawing (below). ‘We don’t often hear back from rescuees,’ smiles Daf, ‘so Emily’s letter and picture were a lovely surprise.’

Emily, 7

‘The RNLI boat came zooming around the corner and the man got off the boat and said: “We’re here to rescue you.” I felt a bit scared because I didn’t know how we were going to get to the boat. But he said: “I’ll give you a piggy back.” ‘I wanted to watch Mummy and Lydia go first. When it was my turn I felt a little bit scared going into the sea. We got wet trousers sitting on the boat and I got carried like a baby by a coastguard on the other side.’

Words and photos:
RNLI/Anna Burn