Portsmouth women rescued from mud-stuck kayak thank emergency services for their help

Mum Louise Roberts, 35, and her daughter Amy, 18, went kayaking in Hilsea on Thursday afternoon with a relative, who was in a separate vessel.

But after his kayak started to sink, the pair tried to head back to dry land – only to wind up stuck in the mud as the tide went out.

Their 999 call sparked a multi-agency response, with coastguard, ambulance, police and fire crews all turning up for a rescue operation.

Louise and Amy, from Paulsgrove, were out in the open for three hours as temperatures plummeted, but didn’t require hospital treatment when they were saved at 10pm.

Louise said: ‘My brother found dry land by the M275 after his kayak deflated, and we were rowing back to the Mountbatten Centre when we got stuck.

‘Amy dialed 999 because I was in a bit of a state, and then when they turned up it all felt a bit extreme – I was quite embarrassed to have half of Hampshire show up.

‘I thought we were going to sink but the coastguard crew told us to just sit still.’

Amy recalled using her phone torch to help emergency services find them, as a plan was put into action to bring the pair ashore.

‘They asked us to signal them so they could find where we were,’ she said.

‘My mum started to panic due to her thinking we were about to sink.’

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For Amy, this was her first time out on a kayak – but mum Louise has plenty of experience out on the water.

On this occasion they were caught out, but are thankful to the emergency services for rushing to their aid.

Louise said: ‘I felt like a bit of an idiot but we already have our hearts set on donating as a thank you.

‘They were incredible and worked so hard to get us out, we honestly cannot thank them enough.

‘We’ll definitely go back out on the water soon – just maybe not near the Mountbatten Centre next time.’

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