If you had been anywhere near the approaches to the Milford Haven waterway on Saturday morning (March 22) you would have been convinced a major incident was underway, with no less than three Tamar class lifeboats operating in the area.
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In reality, it was a pre-arranged exercise, involving Tenby, Angle Lifeboat RNLI and RNLI St David’s all-weather lifeboats, along with Milford Haven Coastguard.
The exercise, which centred around a fictitious report of a person having gone overboard from a vessel in the area, was coordinated by Milford Haven Coastguard from their watch room. It allowed the crews of all three lifeboats to practice and hone their skills in locating and rescuing a casualty, allowing for wind, tidal drift and other on scene conditions and using various search patterns.
With the casualty successfully located by Tenby Lifeboat, the crews met up to discuss how the exercise went, before returning to their respective stations.
A spokesperson for Tenby Lifeboat said: “This exercise was a great chance to put into practice all of our hard work and training. It was a large and complex exercise, which involved searching for a casualty in the water, but had the added pressure of being on the approaches to a busy waterway. The crews all performed really well, locating the casualty and bringing it aboard safely. We’d like to thank St Davids and Angle crews and also Milford Haven Coastguard for coordinating and overseeing the exercise.”