Seven rescued from Cornwall beach after writing SOS in sand

Seven people have been rescued from a beach in Cornwall after writing 'send for help' in the sand.

Four adults and three children had sailed around Stepper Point to a beach at Butter Hole in a dinghy and a small rigid inflatable boat (RIB) for a picnic on Tuesday.

But they got trapped by a two-metre (six-foot) onshore swell, and did not want to risk launching back into the sea with children on board.

They scrawled a distress message in the sand and, luckily, it was spotted by a cliff-top walker who promptly raised the alarm, reports the BBC.

The Rock lifeboat team, as well as the Padstow coastguard team and the Padstow all-weather lifeboat, were called out to the scene.

All seven people were successfully transferred back to Rock, along with their boats.

Mike Hewitt, the RNLI Volunteer Lifeboat Operations Manager at Rock, described it as a "very difficult rescue".

He told Pirate FM: "There was the ever-present threat of the lifeboat being swamped or capsized by the dumping seas but, using their RNLI training, our crew worked together to recover all the people and then their boats.

"I would remind people that it's important to have a suitable means of contacting someone when going to sea. Don't assume you will have a mobile phone signal when you go to a beach by water so take a VHF radio."

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