Two inshore lifeboat launches in two days for Whitby RNLI

The crew was tasked to a potential person in the water near Whitby while out on a routine training session.

A 999 call had been made by walkers on July 19 after they thought they had spotted someone waving for help in the water.

The inshore lifeboat began searching the area while the coastguard crews tracked down the people who’d made the call on shore.

Thankfully it was not a casualty in the water but a flag fixed to a lobster pot.

Jonathan Marr, who was helm on the inshore lifeboat at the time said: “This was a false alarm with good intent.

"We would always rather check it out if someone thinks they’ve seen someone in distress in the sea.

"Thanks to the coastguard locating and speaking to the informants we were able to piece together the information and rule out anyone being in the water.”

The following day, the inshore lifeboat was launched again after a person was cut off by the tide on rocks near Whitby’s east pier.

Volunteer crew from the inshore lifeboat assisted the coastguard in walking the casualty to safety while the inshore lifeboat waited on the shore.

Helm Lee Harland said: “One of the great things about having the smaller inshore lifeboat is that we can make a beach landing, we weren’t needed on this occasion to retrieve the casualty with the lifeboat but were able to assist in walking them to safety over the rocks.

“We’d like to remind people to always check the tide times when out walking on the beach.”