30th July 2017. The team from NCI St Agnes Head have assisted the RNLI in the rescue of a kayaker who had fallen overboard and was struggling to get back out of the sea.

The volunteers from St Agnes Head National Coastwatch Institution station first spotted the man paddling out alone in his kayak and started keeping observations on him, checking his position every fifteen minutes. The team saw the lone fisherman fall overboard and noted that the kayak had also begun to take on water and was sinking in the one to two foot swell off the St Agnes coast and quickly raised the alarm with the RNLI.

The man, who was visiting the area on holiday, was wearing wet weather clothing and a buoyancy aid but had no way of letting anyone know that he was in trouble at sea. After the alarm was raised, volunteers Gavin Forehead, Adam Garland and Jamie Barton quickly launched the RNLI Lifeboat XKalbibur and began a search for the casualty, recovering him at about 7.25pm. The lifeboat crew wrapped him in insulating sheets and gave him oxygen and medication to try to stop him from deteriorating before handing him over to the care of paramedics from the South Western Ambulance Service at Trevaunance Cove

An RNLI spokesman said: "Fortunately, he had been observed and monitored by the two National Coastwatch Institution watch keepers, Mathew Hurst and Jon Macleod, from their lookout on St.Agnes Head. The NCI Coastwatch spotted him go out and then took fifteen-minute observations on him, before raising the alarm. Without them it would have been a very different story. I have spoken with his family today and he is recovering well. His kayak washed up in Perranporth. Hopefully, this incident will help draw attention to the importance of knowing how to stay safe at sea if you are out on a kayak or canoe."

Photograph courtesy of Pirate FM