A REPORT of two red flares illuminating the late night sky near the river Medina and the Folly Inn on Saturday December 11 resulted in the Cowes RNLI all-weather lifeboat and its four volunteer crew spending more than three hours on the water assisting HM Coastguards whilst they conducted a thorough search of the coastline .

The lifeboat launched just after 10.45pm after two 999 calls to the coastguard operations centre. Once on scene it used its powerful spotlights to illuminate the rocky coastline whilst the coastguards team conducted a physical search.

Nothing was found after an exhaustive and lengthy search and the operation was stood down at dawn; the lifeboat returned to its station at Shepards Marina in the early hours on Sunday Morning

Mark Southwell, Lifeboat Operations Manager called for people to act responsibly at this time.

of year. “The Lifeboat crew will always respond to a distress flare and treat it as a genuine emergency.” He added “It would be useful if people thought through the consequences, especially in the run up to Christmas and New Year, as it will inevitably call our crews away from their friends and family.”