Launch 45/22 – 📟 6.40pm

UK Coastguard tasked Porthcawl RNLI’s volunteer crew and the charity’s D Class lifeboat, Hugo Missen was requested to launch as a safety intervention. There were multiple people cut off by the tide and attempting to cross the Ogmore river from the Porthcawl side to Ogmore side.

What followed was a series of incidents in which 22 people were either assisted or rescued in total.

As soon as the crew arrived on scene at Ogmore they were made aware of a mother and child who had been offered a lift across the river by a paddle boarder. They had been swept into the river mouth by the fast flowing tidal current and required immediate assistance. Both the mother and child were taken onboard the lifeboat a little shaken but otherwise okay and were taken to safety on the Ogmore side.

Next the crew were notified by their RNLI Lifeguards South East Wales colleagues of concern for two adult swimmers to the south of the main bay that were caught in the tidal current and at risk of being swept around a point towards Ogmore Deeps. Both were taken onboard the lifeboat and taken back to a safer part of the main bay to swim ashore.

The lifeboat now returned to the river mouth to find two people in a dinghy being swept into the river mouth. Both were taken onboard and taken to safety on the Ogmore side.

The crew then received a retasking from the Coastguard to proceed to Trecco Bay following a report of a person in difficulty. The crew advised those looking to cross the river that they would return to assist them before departing to Trecco Bay.