Saving Lives at Sea

The volunteers of the RNLI race to the scene of a plane crash on a busy beach, search for a man missing at sea in the Channel Islands and battle to save a horse from drowning.

The volunteers of the RNLI race to save a fisherman from a burning boat, a man stuck in freezing mud, and a walker, who after trying to rescue her dog, now needs saving herself.

Every day in the seas around the UK and Ireland, an army of unpaid volunteers put their lives on the line to save those of others. Saving Lives At Sea tells the story of the ordinary men and women of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) who are ready to answer their pager’s call and race to the rescue of those in trouble, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, whatever the weather. Using footage shot on the crews’ own cameras, this series takes us into the heart of the action, capturing the unpredictable work of the RNLI in unique detail. Out at sea the lifeboat crews know that minutes and even seconds can mean the difference between life and death. On the rugged east coast of Scotland, three kids have been cut off in a sea cave by a rising tide - the crew at Dunbar must race to get to them before the rising water does. Meanwhile on the opposite coast of Scotland, the crew at Tobermory face their own life and death race – a yacht and her four crew members caught in a violent storm are being pushed ever closer to a rocky shore and disaster. On the north east coast of England the crew at Blyth are called out to search for a missing 80-year-old man who hasn’t been seen for over six hours after leaving home to search for lobsters on the coast. The crew have no idea if he is in the sea or on shore, but what they do know is that with every passing minute the chance of finding him alive are dwindling.

Although the lifeboat crews are on call all year round, it’s in the summer months when they’re at their busiest. As holidaymakers flock to the coast, the lifeboat crews and lifeguard teams are on high alert. When the sun is out, the sea cliffs in Dorset are a draw for climbers from all over the country, but when one falls over 40 feet onto an inaccessible rocky ledge the lifeboat crew have to work out how to get her to safety. In Cornwall, another extreme sports enthusiast needs saving when a paraglider misjudges his launch and ends up crashing into the sea. And the Redcar lifeboat crew search for a man who has drifted over a mile offshore in a small toy dinghy.

In Newquay the lifeboat crew are called one of the many ship wrecks lying on the sea bed off the Cornish coast, where a diver has been found unconscious without his mouthpiece over 30 metres under the waves. In one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, the Dover Strait, a yacht taking on water calls for help. The crew of the Dover lifeboat race to reach them before they sink or are hit by one of the large cargo ships racing through the Channel. Meanwhile in Mudeford on the Dorset coast the crew and their lifeboat are pushed to their limits as they launch into storm conditions to search for a windsurfer in trouble.

A volunteer in Scotland has to rescue his own father, whose fishing boat is drifting powerless towards a rocky shoreline. In Bristol, a father and son are among the crew that comes to the aid of two five-year-old girls who have drifted into the Bristol channel on an inflatable, while in Ilfracombe, lifeboat volunteers race against time to save a mother and her daughter stranded at the base of huge sea cliffs.

The RNLI volunteers at Lough Ree Lifeboat Station race to the rescue of the last inhabitant of a remote island. On the north-east coast of England, the Blyth crew races to find a kayaker in trouble in the North Sea, while at Tower station in Central London, a dog is trapped by the tide on the River Thames.

The RNLI volunteers race to the rescue of a huge cargo ship aground on a sandbank, a kayaker who has set off an emergency beacon, and a horse in danger of drowning in a river.

In Crosshaven, on the south coast of Ireland, one of the younger crew members, 23-year-old Jenna, gets FOMO when she is called out at the weekend while her friends are going out. But when the pagers go off on one Saturday night in early September, there are no thoughts of missing out when the details of the call come through – a shark attack. On the south coast of England in Lyme Regis, another early evening weekend call means social lives are put on hold as the crew leave friends, families and other halves to try to save two boys being swept far out to sea in a treacherous rip current. Meanwhile, at Portishead on the Bristol Channel, music teacher and trainee crew member Lu finds herself on one of her first shouts going out to one of the most urgent calls they can get – casualties in the water.

When the lives of the volunteers are interrupted by the sound of their pagers, the crews have no idea what they may be facing. All they know is to expect the unexpected. In Cleethorpes on the Humber estuary, the pagers go off on a calm summer’s day. Arriving at the station, the crew discover two lives are in imminent danger - two teenagers are stuck fast in mud with the incoming tide threatening to overwhelm them. On Loch Ness in Scotland, at one of the RNLI’s few inland stations, a routine call to pick up a boat that has broken its moorings becomes a race to save a family of four as a more urgent call comes in. The mast has snapped on their yacht, threatening to capsize the boat and throw the family into the freezing waters of the loch.