Air Sea Rescue in Lee Bay

Last night at about 8.00 it was pitch black outside and we were finishing supper when I noticed lights in the bay. There seemed to be a couple of boats with very bright lights which were being shone around the bay. I came out to find an RNLI lifeboat and a rib trying to get close into the rocks on the right hand side of the picture. It was a horrendous night with huge seas and a tide of 9 metres which was crashing over the sea wall. The rib kept going in closer with its light shining on the rocks, but had to keep turning back. The rocks there are treacherous. After about 45 mins, they clearly hadn’t managed to either find what they were looking for or rescue whoever it was and called for the Air Sea Rescue helicopter. The helicopter came and shone its lights and hovered for about 20 mins and then flew off. We went to bed wondering if someone was still out there and hadn’t been found. This morning I was searching the local news and found this:
“Both Ilfracombe lifeboats were launched at 7:30pm yesterday evening to two people cut off by the tide near Lee. The weather was very rough with big waves and high winds and so, as the two were relatively high up and therefore out of immediate danger, the decision was taken to reach them by Coastguard helicopter rather than risk a trickier maneuver by boat. The lifeboats stayed in position until the pair were lifted to safety and then returned to the lifeboat station”
My golly they were lucky. Thank goodness for The RNLI and the coastguards.