Out on the boat with Port of Sunderland water patrol
Sunderland Echo reporter Neil Fatkin talks to members of the Port of Sunderland's water patrol about what they do.
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00:00 You get a lot of big offshore vessels coming in, it's quite interesting, you know, looking at ships.
00:05 But they're huge, they can't navigate anywhere else. But you'll get a paddleboarder going over,
00:10 "Oh, let's go and have a look at that." So we've got to go and basically just warn them that there's
00:16 traffic, keep well clear of the navigation. And you get sort of pulled under by the engines,
00:20 that sort of thing? Well, if they go in front of a vessel, the vessel can't stop. With more and more
00:26 people using the water these days, in terms of on the river and down at Roker Beach there, we've got
00:31 paddleboarders, we've got kayakers, wild swimmers. Southern City Council have introduced a new water
00:36 patrol vessel. In fact, there's two, which come out on the water to check on people's safety each day
00:40 and to give advice and guidance. So today I've come down to take a trip out on one of these
00:44 patrol boats to just see what work they do. You're out there sort of giving people advice,
00:48 are you basically sort of if anyone's in difficulty? Yeah, that's sort of the main role.
00:52 Water patrol is primarily to enforce the port bylaws. But we patrol up and down the river,
01:04 right up the river to the outer harbour. So what you've got, since COVID, you know, we've got an
01:13 abundance of paddleboarders, especially on a nice day. And even on a day like this, you might get
01:18 paddleboarders out. And we'll keep an eye on them. A lot of people don't actually realise when they
01:24 go on the paddleboard, they need to check the weather. So like an offshore wind will blow them
01:28 out and sometimes they can't like paddle against the tide and the wind. And anyone that gets into
01:34 trouble, or look as if they're about to get into trouble, we can go and have a word with them and
01:42 give them safety advice, helpful advice. What are the issues? I mean, do people come out not
01:47 sort of prepared, not equipped? Oh yeah. Without wetsuits, that sort of thing. Are they the main
01:50 sort of issues? Yes. Yeah, that's the main issue. You come out and you see people with a t-shirt and
01:57 you know, a baling costume, that's inadequate for even on a summer's day. What will the water
02:06 temperature be now? It'll be about nine, nine, ten degrees. And even mid summer,
02:10 what will they get up to? It'll be up to about 12. The minimum for a paddleboard would be a wetsuit
02:17 and a float. You wouldn't want one of these, but you'd want a floatation vest. Yeah. It's just to
02:23 help you when you go in to get back to your board and that, you know. If patrols in the area, we will
02:28 give them a towing, we will give them advice, wearing the buoyancy aid, correct gear. So
02:32 wearing shorts and t-shirts, not advisable to go out on a paddleboard. Quite often people fall off,
02:37 you should be wearing like a wetsuit or a dry suit with the correct floatation devices like a buoyancy
02:41 aid. And when and how often do the boats go out? There's two boats, isn't there? So there's two
02:45 boats that we've got. We've got Sentinel, which is the main one that's normally out on patrol,
02:50 and we've got another one which is called Patrol. Normally we only have one out at a time,
02:55 unless there's an event on. So last year they recovered, safe cover for the event for the
03:00 triathlon. We also closed part of the river and the channel for that and make it safe for the
03:06 triathlon to take place. So with that we stopped any vessels going into the area, making sure they
03:12 weren't going near the swimmers. Open water swimming has become more popular as well. So again,
03:17 people need to take like floats out with them, so you can be as e-sport. Don't swim in the channel.
03:25 So when you swim in the harbour, a lot of people will swim across in the channel, the ships are
03:29 coming in and out and they can't actually see you. You can't just go and enforce a law, you need to
03:33 educate people and that's one of the primary purposes of this, to actually educate people.
03:37 You know, when people are in the water, you can see them in difficulty, you don't want to go and
03:39 frighten them and say "Oh, what, you need a hand?" It's go up and say "Can we help?" And when you're
03:45 talking to them, you know, "The water's really cold, we've got fast tides around here, we've got
03:50 lots of shipping names around here, you should really have something to help you to float.
03:55 A wetsuit would be awesome, instead of just going with a bikini and getting a suntan on your
04:00 toes. And if you're lying in the middle, be aware that there's other vessels using the area too,
04:06 they might not see you, so you might get knocked in the water.
04:08 The weather has been a bit inclement. We've had a lot of easterly winds, so the paddleboarders,
04:16 last weekend we had quite a few paddleboarders, it was a nice weekend. And it was,
04:21 yeah, I mean, we always, we make ourselves known to them as well, the community on the water,
04:30 we'll make ourselves known, know who we are, how they can contact us if necessary.
04:35 And also we've got Port Control, which we can contact and they will let us know if there's
04:46 any activity with the police or the coastguard. We contact the coastguard as well, we contact,
04:54 on the VHF radio, we can contact and raise a mayday at any time or, you know, an urgency message
05:01 any time. We have to stress that we're not primarily the rescue service, the RNLI and the
05:07 coastguard are the prime, but if we're on the water and we see someone in difficulty, or we see
05:14 somebody obviously not doing what they should be doing, we'll give advice and help. And if necessary,
05:22 which we have done, pull people out of the water. We had one occasion last summer where
05:28 there was four guys decided to launch a paddling pool, something you'd have in your garden,
05:37 with four seats in the corner, decided that was a boat. So they went out and sort of,
05:44 they were drinking cans and just had costumes on and there were, I mean, it was a hot day, but
05:51 yeah, and they ended up all in the water, but they were quite close, they managed to get to the
05:57 shore. So, you know, you've got to see that is not a boat, that is a paddling pool, shouldn't be used.
06:05 I mean, are you seeing more and more people on the water? I mean, I don't know about sea
06:08 kayaking and stuff, and you often see paddle boarders, whale swimming's very popular now.
06:12 The swimmers, we've pulled swimmers in when they've got into difficulties, even though they've had the
06:17 full gear on, and they are acclimatised swimmers. We've still, they've got the weather wrong,
06:24 offshore breeze, pushing them out, and the swallowing water, you see, when they're coming
06:31 back into the shore, the swallowing water, so we'll get them on board and see, you know.
06:36 And just help them, just help people. We don't want people to not enjoy the water, this is a
06:42 fantastic facility, you know. Since Covid, we've seen a lot more, certainly paddle board seems to
06:50 have become the thing, and kayakers, yeah, and what you'll get is a paddle boarder that'll go out
06:58 and you'll say, "Have you been doing that long?" "Oh no, I just boarded yesterday." And they're
07:03 out in the middle of the harbour, you know. The wildlife in this river is huge, given the
07:08 industry that's been in here since the 1800s, and the way the river's been cleaned up. You see
07:15 otters, you see a lot of herons, some migrant birds, seals of course, and some of the porpoise
07:21 and dolphin come up here. I was on the boat last Sunday, the dolphins were right in the harbour,
07:27 right, they're coming right in, even up to heat at this point, so we were having a look at them
07:32 and making sure. Our brief is to keep boats away from, you know, chasing after the dolphins.
07:41 I'm guessing that's an issue, when people see the dolphins, they'll want a paddle board or a kayak,
07:44 to go after them, yeah? Yeah, but you have responsible people as well on the dolphin
07:52 watch and that, they'll go out and just drift with them and take photos and that. Whereas you get
07:57 some people on jet skis, flying in amongst them, you know, at speed, which is obviously dangerous.
08:04 A lot of people don't actually know what the bylaws are, like for instance, the speed limit
08:09 is six knots from the pears all the way up the river. A lot of people want to come in on the
08:14 jet skis and fly around the jet skis, so we've had a lot of problems with them, which has improved
08:19 quite a bit. But obviously in a jet ski, people want to go fast, you've got swimmers, you've got
08:24 shipping, so that's why the six knots is all the way up the river. Enjoy the coastline, enjoy the
08:29 riverboat, respect it. Enjoy it and respect it, yes definitely. Respect the water all the time.
08:36 A day like this, it looks fairly calm, but there's a swell coming in
08:41 and you can soon, if you're on a small kayak, you can soon get into difficulties. There is
08:47 restricted areas, like the south pier, you see the whole of the south pier, that's restricted to the
08:54 public. Right. It always has been since it was built and that's part of the dock system. So if
09:00 you see anyone on there, you know, you know the trespassing, you know, again we would...
09:05 and at the moment, the north pier is out of bounds because of the damage. This is the old north pier,
09:12 which is again a restricted area, but they'll climb over the fence. I think it was Saturday
09:18 morning, there was loads of paddle boards out and there were dolphin watching out at the entrance.
09:25 A fog bank rolled in and they were all of a sudden, you know, so again, certain conditions off
09:33 Sunderland, like nice calm weather and especially in the summer, you get the fog bank rolling in.
09:40 We often see, it's a nice rest of the country, we have a safe red cup, they're not often seen to be
09:43 here. Yeah, quite calm. I'm guessing if you're out there and you're in a real thick fog, you won't
09:48 know which way to paddle. You could be paddling out of here rather than in. I mean on a boat,
09:52 you generally have a plotter, a plotter waiting, you can see where you are, or a compass, you see,
10:00 compass. With a paddle board, you don't have any of that. Unless you've got on your mobile phone,
10:05 you can get all of this stuff on apps and that on the mobile phone. What's your background? I mean,
10:12 obviously you're doing this job now, what's your background? Is it a marine background?
10:15 My full working life was spent in the merchant navy. I left school at 16, went in the merchant
10:22 navy and I was captain in the merchant navy for 16 years before I went ashore in the office
10:30 management. So do you just patrol it to the piers? Yeah, we're not allowed to go out the piers.
10:36 We do have a kind of a mandate if there is an incident and if we're tasked by the coast guard
10:43 say, if there's a boat or if there's a casualty just outside the piers, we can go and, as an
10:51 exception, go out and take part in a rescue. So basically the river up the Cox Green,
10:58 up the beach area, where the piers are. The best thing of the job is to be part of the life
11:04 that's on the river. I mean, there's a whole family here. It's not just you and me, it's the
11:11 marine life, the bird life, the wildlife. It's given occupations to people, it's given people
11:17 money to live and homes and it's built a big tradition about something. I mean,
11:23 people still talk about, I lived in Austria for 20 years, still talk about the ships that
11:27 were built here. We're here to enforce the bylaws of the port and the river, but the reality of it
11:32 is you can only achieve it by education and building connections because we don't want to
11:36 stop people from using the river. We want to encourage them. It's just absolutely amazing.
11:40 There's an opportunity to see so much and experience so much,
11:44 but we just need to educate them and sort of say, be water wise.
11:48 [Music]