Night time rescue after paddleboarders drift off Tresaith

The paddleboarders, who haven’t been named, were seen shining the torchlight from their mobile phone to attract attention after they began drifting out to sea, some half a mile from the shore at Tresaith.

A call was made to Cardigan’s Atlantic 85 Lifeboat at 11.24pm on Thursday July 13.

“In almost complete darkness, the Albatross lifeboat made its way as fast as possible to Tresaith using the chart plotter to put in a safe route and radar to cross check,” confirmed a Cardigan RNLI spokesperson.

“And because it was so late in the night, many of the crew had arrived in their pyjamas and had to get changed into their crew PPE gear at the station.”

Some of Cardigan's RNLI team preparing to leave for Tresaith (Image: RNLI)

Once the crew reached Tresaith, they made contact with HM Cardigan Coastguard who informed them that the paddleboarders had been shining their mobile phone to attract attention.

“The light was seen by our crew and they located the casualties around half a mile offshore, but they were drifting further out to sea.”

The casualties were then brought aboard the lifeboat where they were assessed by the crew. They were found to be suffering from the effects of cold and shock.

They were wrapped in emergency blankets and returned to the beach where they were met by a team of paramedics.

“The crew were back in their beds by around 2am, which means that many of them will got up a few hours later for work on Friday morning,” added the Cardigan RNLI crew member.

“But as always, this was a team effort with a near-full crew turn out which shows a huge degree of commitment in the middle of the night when most of the crew had been asleep.

“To give you an idea of how quickly our crew respond to their pagers and how seriously we take each emergency, many crew attended the station still in their pyjamas, where they were able to put on their crew PPE.

“It really does take a team to save lives at sea.”