Thursday, September 2, 2010

Rescue

There we were in Jacob's of Baltimore sitting having a coffee and ice cream when we heard the sound of a helicopter.  We looked out the window and it was the big Rescue 'copter from Shannon.  There was a bit of a commotion outside so we decided to investigate.  Here's the news story (source):


Baltimore RNLI Lifeboat crews went to the assistance of a yacht which reported a man overboard 1 mile to the east of Baltimore Beacon. Baltimore all weather lifeboat Hilda Jarrett under the command of coxswain Kieran Cotter and Baltimore inshore lifeboat Bessie, helmed by John Kearney were alerted at 15:21 this afternoon (28 August 2010).
A 32 ft yacht sailing out of Schull Harbour with four adults and one child on board suffered an unexpected gybe when sailing downwind. A crewmember was struck by the boom and knocked overboard in a semi-conscious condition. Fortunately he was wearing a lifejacket. The crew of the yacht were unable to recover the casualty who was plucked from the water by a motor boat in the vicinity.
Two Baltimore lifeboat crewmembers boarded the rescuing vessel to offer medical assistance as the boat returned to Baltimore Harbour. Meanwhile Coastguard Helicopter 115 from Shannon, had arrived on scene and due to the condition of the causalty, winched him on board for rapid transfer to Cork University Hospital. Baltimore Lifeboat coxswain Kieran Cotter commented afterwards ' the mans life had been saved by the wearing of a lifejacket'.
This brought out the latent photojournalist in me:  
Rescue 1

"What you lookin' at?!"

Rescue 4

Audience

Rescue 3

Getting Ready

Rescue 2

Got 'im

Rescue 5

RNLI man - job well done.  

Well done to the rescue services.  I hope and pray that the rescued man is now OK.  

All pictures taken with Nikon F100 film camera and a 50mm lens, using Ilford FP4 plus Black and White film.  

4 comments:

Ted Rea. said...

Daniel, Well done, you should get a job reporting with RTE as a local correspondent. Tom McSweeney or Paschal Sheehy better watch out

Daniel & Sonja said...

Thanks Edward - I'm sure Tom and Paschal are getting worried ;~)

Joc Sanders said...

Great report, Daniel. On Lough Derg we are also blessed with an inland lifeboat. We see them exercising regularly with the air-sea rescue helicopter from Shannon, and they regularly save lives on our lake.
What I find particularly impressive is that the crew are all unpaid volunteers, who drop whatever they are doing when they get the 'shout' to race to launch the lifeboat. They give the lie to those who would have us believe community is dead.

Daniel & Sonja said...

Well said Joc.