Man rescued from toy dinghy in the North Sea off Redcar coast
The occupant of the boat, reported to be in his 30s, was found wedged into his flimsy inflatable and drifting towards a wind farm.
Tuesday 1 August 2017 12:52, UK
A lifeboat was scrambled to rescue a man stuck a mile out at sea as he tried to paddle against the current in a toy dinghy.
The man, who the RNLI believe was in his 30s, was pulled to safety as he drifted in the North Sea off the coast of Redcar with his legs dangling over the edge of the blow-up craft.
He was rescued on Monday evening near the Teesside wind farm and was not exactly kitted out for a day at sea - wearing shorts, a hoody and trainers.
The RNLI said the Redcar inshore lifeboat escorted the man back to dry land where "a coastguard team was waiting to give him sea safety advice".
Dave Cocks, lifeboat operations manager at Redcar RNLI said: "This is a good example of the types of incident we repeatedly warn people about.
'It was a reasonably pleasant evening but the wind and tide were a recipe for this to happen.
"We believe the man was in his 30s. He was dressed in only a hoodie and shorts. He was bigger than the dinghy so his feet were hanging over the edge.
"If the alarm hadn't been raised there was every likelihood he'd have drifted out of sight of land and we could well have been bringing a dead body back."