During the festive period the RNLI Salcombe lifeboats were launched in response to a mayday call near Start Point.

The Coastguard received a call from an unknown cliff walker who spotted several people in the water near Start Point. Both RNLI Salcombe lifeboats, the all-weather lifeboats (ALB) and the inshore lifeboats (ILB) were launched in response to the call.

On route to the scene, it became established that the two divers had become separated from their dive boat and with this information, the inshore ILB was diverted to that vessel.

Working with the Coastguard team, the crew of the ALB were able to locate and recover the divers one mile South of the dive boat.

After confirming that both divers were in good health and not in any danger of decompression injury, they were passed back to the dive boat which was stationed to the North of Start Point.

The ALB and other services were then stood down, leaving the ILB to escort the dive boat to Dartmouth before returning to Salcombe.

RNLI Salcombe gave a special mention to the unknown cliff walkers who made the emergency call on Thursday, December 21. “That person’s actions saved two lives” wrote RNLI Salcombe on Facebook.