7th June 2022. A quick-thinking volunteer watchkeeper at the National Coastwatch Institution station at Fleetwood saved two walkers from serious peril after spotting them on a sandbank with the tide quickly coming in. Pete Wood saw the two men walking out more than a mile from the shore with the tide rushing in, and wasted no time in contacting HM Coastguard at Holyhead for assistance at around 3pm on Tuesday 7th June).

Pete, a volunteer at the Rossall Point tower since 2010, used his training to assist the Coastguard by giving the direction and distance from shore of the men, located further our from the town’s boating lake. The Coastguard then requested Fleetwood RNLI to launch immediately.

The two men were by now surrounded by the fast-flowing tide but were collected by the volunteer lifeboat crew and safely returned to shore . Acting Coxswain Tony Cowell at Fleetwood RNLI said: ‘It was lucky these two men were spotted. They would have had a big problem if they hadn’t been picked up when they were.”