Freak Tragumna wave prompts safety warning

A FAMILY was hit by a freak wave at the popular beach at Tragumna, near Skibbereen, recently.

The Coast Guard has now appealed to the public to stay well back from the sea, especially during stormy weather.

The appeal was made after a woman and two children were caught unawares by the freak wave.

On social media, the mother appealed to people to be careful, having described being swept out to sea as ‘absolutely terrifying.’

None of the three were injured, but they did say they were ‘shaken’ by the ordeal.

Something similar happened about 20 years ago, when two adults and two children were caught by a freak wave.

On that occasion, Jim Kennedy of Atlantic Sea Kayaking assisted in the rescue of the family unit.

He recalled how they were ‘holding onto one another and I held onto the whole lot of them.

‘We were dragged out, upside down, but the water receded enough for us to anchor our feet on the beach and return to the shoreline.

‘The whole thing took 30 seconds,’ he told The Southern Star. He, too, appealed to people to ‘respect the power of the sea at all times.’

There is yet another coincidence in all of this: Jim and Maria Kennedy were in Tragumna about an hour before the latest incident happened.

They said they had noticed that two lifebuoys were knotted up, so they took the time to untangled them and put them back in place.