Numerous rescue operations were carried out in the Channel and in the Atlantic in the night from Saturday to Sunday due to a strong gale, we learned Sunday morning from the maritime prefectures of Brest and Cherbourg. Only one victim was, Sunday morning, to deplore, a kite-surfer thrown against a building Saturday evening in Villers-sur-Mer in Calvados. A person initially reported missing at sea in Deauville was finally found on land safe and sound, we learned from a prefectural source.
Sixty operations carried out
“More than sixty operations were carried out during the night and very significant relief resources, civilian and military, were deployed,” the maritime prefecture of the Atlantic in Brest, whose area of competence extends from the bay of Mont Saint-Michel to the Spanish border. These operations, with maritime and air resources, took place on the entire coast, from the coasts of Brittany to the Charentes, to the Gironde, “including the Spanish zone of the Bay of Biscay, the same source specified.
“Boaters were surprised a lot by the degradation of the weather,” we commented. These included drifting boats, propulsion damage, broken moorings or, on occasion, people reported missing by their relatives, for lack of news and worried about changing weather conditions.
“Such a high number of interventions is unusual in this season,” it was pointed out. Météo France had announced this sudden deterioration from Saturday evening of weather conditions on the coast. Sunday morning, force 8 winds (between 60 and 75 km/h) were still blowing on the north coasts and the west coast of Brittany as well as on the west coast of Cotentin. The Normandy coast up to the Bay of Somme was swept by force 7 winds.