Aftermath of a tragedy

I was a little dejected yesterday by the first trasgedy in a while caused by a neashore freaque wave, I did not feel like to go into the details in the blog. Today another local article provided some further information about the lost of two good friends: David Gwyn Richards and Paul Meredith died when their 14ft sea angling vessel, Shane, was hit by a freak wave, which knocked the crew overboard. As the skipper of Shane, Chris Williams was, plucked from the sea near Gower's Whitford Lighthouse by the crew of fishing vessel the Stargazer. The bodies of Richards and Meredith were found two-and-a-half hour after the first emergency call. According to the local coastguard:

It is thought a freak wave breaking over the side of the vessel caused it to capsize in the Loughor Estuary.

A coastguard spokesman said: "They did have safety jackets on board, but were not wearing them."

Spencer Davies, operations manager of the Burry Port inshore lifeboat, which took part in the rescue, said the area where the accident happened was notorious for big swells.

He said: "The waves go over a sand bank, which leads to swells and, occasionally, a really big one breaks over the bank."

I guess the most upsetting part of the whole story is that "They did have safety jackets on board, but were not wearing them." That is a giant lesson to be learn. Echoing what I commented yesterday, there is just no excuse whatsoever for not wearing safety jackets, especially when they have them onboard. Hopefully we can all learn a lesson from this case and never ever to let it happen again!