Hi,
Just a photo of my PLB and T-shirt.
I started off fishing just out of Lymington at 5 PM on an October afternoon. When I finished about 11 PM I decided to head in so lifted anchor and started paddling.
I didn’t use my chart plotter as I knew I was only 5 minutes away from the main Lymington River, so off I went heading for the lights of the town.
Little known to me, after about one hour, which I thought was strange, I ended up in Yarmouth on the IOW the opposite side to Lymington about two miles away. Ooops.
So I then decided to set my chart plotter for Lymington and set off. After about one hour of getting nowhere, I realised I was caught up in a strong current that was just sending me in a huge circle.
Now the time was around 3 AM and as I was getting nowhere, I gave in. I had only purchased my PLB a week before as I thought it would be a great safety net. Phew.
“Ok, here we go,” I thought. So I activated my beacon and got on the radio to the coastguard, reported my issue and got the response of “WE HAVE YOUR POSITION FROM YOUR BEACON and have mustered the Yarmouth lifeboat.” They then picked me and my kayak up and took me back to Lymington.
They did praise me for having all the correct equipment.
My story is one of a happy outcome and although I knew I was in trouble at 3 AM in the pitch black with my mind trying to play tricks, I felt reassured and safe knowing I had my PLB. It really is a lifesaving device.
After I wrote my story on the survivor club website I sent off my PLB and received a new one two weeks later along with a T-shirt.
So along with them and yourselves at the coastguard RNLI I truly feel very safe whilst playing with Mother Nature in her playground.
Many thanks,
Darren