Pair rescued after scrambling a cliff to escape incoming tide
The RNLI were called out to Porlock Bay
The RNLI say a brother and sister had a lucky escape after they got trapped at the bottom of 800-ft cliffs by the incoming tide.
Minehead’s RNLI lifeboat crew were sent to rescue the pair at about 5pm yesterday - after they tried to get away from the water.
The couple - a brother and sister in their 20s - had scrambled 10 metres up the cliff at Hurlestone Point in Porlock Bay but couldn't get any higher.
Minehead’s volunteer crew launched the station’s D class just after 5pm in response to their 999 call. Coastguards initially proposed a rope rescue, but the sea conditions were calm enough for the lifeboat crew to nose the boat into a rocky beach just below the couple.
Helm Richard Gay said: “They were obviously a bit nervous but we managed to persuade them to come slowly down the cliff backwards - then got them into the boat and put them ashore.
“They were clearly very grateful. It was a nasty place to be stuck: the tide was still coming in and it was clear they had no hope of going any higher from the spot where they were trapped.”
Four hours earlier the Minehead crew had launched the station’s Atlantic 85 to evacuate a seriously seasick angler from a fishing boat moored half a mile off the station.