Cross-Solent ferry passengers are facing delays of up to 60 minutes after a Wightlink vessel was diverted to assist in an emergency search in the Solent earlier this evening (Wednesday).
Wightlink’s Victoria of Wight, which operates between Portsmouth and Fishbourne, was called upon to assist in a HM Coastguard-led search after reports were received of a windsurfer in difficulty off Stokes Bay, near Gosport, at around 19:30.
The alert led to Coastguard Rescue 375 helicopter being scrambled from Lee-on-Solent, with Coastguard Rescue Teams from Portsmouth and Hillhead mobilised.
Gosport and Fareham Inshore Rescue Service launched its lifeboat.
The search has now been called off, with confirmation that no persons are in difficulty.
HM Coastguard have declared the incident a false alarm with good intent.
Those travelling with Wightlink are being warned that the service is running up to an hour behind schedule.
Is this perhaps another example of increasing over-reaction to real and emergencies? Every fire tender on the Island backed up by one from Southsea for a bungalow fire, chaos caused by possible medical emergencies, helicopters competing to do an air lift to St Marys when the hospital was fifteen minutes away by blue light, armed squads of balaclava-wearing cops zooming by RIB across the .Solent to attend a non-firearm event. Its all very well saying better to be safe than sorry and easy to be wise after the event, but my point is about over-reaction. All of the cases above could have been dealt with without high drama. How would a lumbering ferry actually do better than any number of small craft in the area in assisting the search for a non-missing windsurfer? And it can only get worse.
It is a long-standing tradition that all vessels respond to mayday calls and emergencies at sea. And it is international law that vessels do so, mandated by the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea. The Master of the Wightlink ferry had no choice in the matter. A larger vessel could potentially be a very useful addition to smaller craft in choppy seas because of better visibilty from height to spot a surfer in a swell.
Long may this law and tradition continue!