Saturday I had a little lie in and then did a bit of work in the garden so didn't get out till 13.00 and went to St Mary with the intention of staying on the island over the high tide. The place was packed so wandered along the promenade for about an hour and a half watching the Swallows feeding their young and the mass of birds including 2-300 Golden Plover.
As I neared the causeway I could see loads of people still crossing as the tide was coming in and the crowd at the end of the causeway was getting rather large so I waited and waited as not many seemed to want to come off. Eventually I decided not to bother as the Golden Plover took off en masse as the tide came in and headed for the island although they took a swift detour when they got there as it still had loads of people on and they then flew off North and I eventually lost sight of them somewere around Blyth. It then got a bit silly as around 50 people came across when the causeway was completely covered .
Eventually they all came off apart from about 15 - 20 most of which are in this photo but there was still at least a family of a father and 4 children round the other side of the lighthouse.
Then the guy with the 4 children decided to be a "sensible man!!!!" and lead the four children off with the tide still coming in and eventually got across even though the water was well over his knees. When he started off must have been the time when people started ringing the emergency services as when he came out of the water on the other side the police, ambulance and RNLI cars arrived.
At the same time unbeknown to most of us 3 lads of about 20-25 came onto the causeway from the front of the promenade as they had been trapped by the tide and had to wade in waist deep water round the promenade. Then a RNLI Life Guard waded across to the island (waist deep now) and spoke to the people on the island as another RNLI chap with a Jet Ski and some sort of towing device waited in the distance. When he came back another 2 Lifeboats came out and eventually all the people were transferred and whisked away in the direction of Cullercoats.
The funny thing was that as the people were getting transferred off 5 Divers waded across up to chest height to go diving off the East side of the island. Why didn't the police and RNLI leave the people there for a couple of hours instead of wasting man and machinery hours in giving people a "lift to the mainland". I also hope the chap with the kids who came across was given a "stern talking to" and the 3 lads who ended up soaked to the skin were also reprimanded. Now I am the first to admit that I might not have known the whole picture of what was going on, but, to the crowds watching this, who mostly thought the same way as I did it did not present the idiots, who allowed themselves to be stuck on the island and the RNLI, who should have just said you are in no danger just stick it out there for another 90 mins till the tide drops, in a good light. People did comment that why was all this donated and taxpayers money wasted in bringing this situation to its finale.
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