Cross farmer rescues stranded couple

A FARMER from Cross in the Loop Head peninsula played a central role in rescuing two people from a stalled fibreglass boat in Trabolgan, Cork last Saturday night.

Tom Collins was at the resort with his wife, Rebecca, and their four children. He was fishing at about 9.15pm when he heard the man and woman on the broken-down boat shouting for help. They had hired the boat in Kenmare and when they didn’t return as expected at 6pm, the Waterford Coast Guard helicopter and Ballycotton lifeboat had launched a search at 8pm.

 

“I decided, after putting the kids to bed, I’d go down to the pier in the holiday village itself. I said I’d go fishing because it’s a great place for bass. There’s usually somebody down there fishing but I was down there on my own,” Mr Collins told The Clare Champion.

“Before I hooked up my rod and reel, I could hear someone calling for help. It was practically dark but in the distance, I could see the outline of the white boat. It was a fibreglass boat, about 12ft long and there were two people in it huddled in together. I shouted at them and asked what was wrong. They said ‘we’re freezing, we’ve lost all control of the boat and it won’t start’. They had no oars or ropes on board. All they had was the rope on the bow line,” he remembered.

Mr Collins tried to telephone the marine rescue service but he had no mobile signal. “There was only one piece of rope on the pier so I took off my shoes. All I could really do was dive in and go towards them. I got as far as the boat, I got at the bow line and I swam in and pulled them in with it. By the time I pulled them in, I realised they were suffering from the first stages of hypothermia,” the first-aid qualified rescuer added.

“I couldn’t get them out of the boat at the pier so I tied the boat there and ran up to the security guard at the resort. They came down with me and radioed for the marine rescue.

“The Waterford Coast Guard helicopter had been out looking for them since 8pm. They were out and the Ballycotton lifeboat was out. The boat had been hired out from Kenmare and when they hadn’t arrived back at 6pm, the company that hired the boat got worried,” he explained.

The couple were examined by medics after disembarking. “The rescue people came down and we got them out of the boat and up to the green area, about 100m from the shore line. We got blankets around them. The Cliff and Coastal Rescue Service arrived on the scene with two advanced medics. The helicopter was on standby until they got word from the medics that everything was ok,” Mr Collins outlined. However, the couple were brought by ambulance to Cork University Hospital for treatment.

Mr Collins said life as a farmer in Cross had taught him to keep calm in trying situations. “I’m a farmer back here in West Clare. We haven’t much of a choice but to keep the head,” he laughed.