Sometime the sea is calm and soothing, like a snoozing cat... at other times it's more like a playful kitten, but sometimes, like yesterday, it is like a wild and ferocious lion. Never underestimate the power of the waves thundering against the shore, or the speed at which the sea can change its mood from being seemingly innocent and peaceful one minute, then angry and tumultuous the next...
Yesterday afternoon I was walking along to work via the lower promenade, as I often do, but didn't really expect it to end up with me witnessing an air-sea rescue, and having a couple of my photos shown on the local news on TV the next day... I was even asked to speak about it on TV but I said I'd rather not... I've spoken on local radio about Anger Management in humans a couple of times before, but I haven't had much practice at speaking about the angry sea - although I did study 'Coasts and Coastal Managment' as part of my degree, so I'm actually more qualified to talk about that than I am to talk about human anger issues...
Anyway, needless to say, the sea was quite choppy. I was completely in awe of the waves crashing and thundering against each other, and towering several feet upwards into the sky. I, along with several others, was snapping away furiously with my camera, trying to capture the majesty of it all....
Some people were getting a bit too close for my liking, and the possibility that something bad might happen ran through my mind. Even chunks of tarmac were being ripped up by the jaws of the raging sea... I decided to steer several feet clear of the edge, and quickened my pace.
When I got to Brown's Bay, there was a lot of screaming and shouting. At first I thought it was children fooling around, but when I zoomed in with my camera I realised that it was much more serious.
I've often taken photos of the life belts, but never considered that I'd ever actually witness one being used...
Within moments the lifeboat appeared and almost in one fell swoop they made their rescue and sped off round to the harbour, to be met soon afterwards by the rescue helicopter...
The rescuee was then winched up into the helicopter and whisked away to hospital...
It was amazing to observe, but left me feeling tearful and emotional, and totally in awe of the braveness and courage of all involved in the rescue.
Later, as I was sitting in my office looking through the photos, the sound of a merry ice cream van outside with its jangling tune seemed sadly out of place after what had just happened....
It turned out that what had happened was that a 12 year old boy had been swept out to sea by the waves. It seems as if he was rescued in the nick of time... His guardian angels must have been watching over him, that's for sure... Well done to all concerned for doing such an amazing job...
