![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0_151025swimmerscutoffatSullyIsland_02.jpg\")
Gordon Hadfield stepped in to help two people he saw entering the water from Sully Island(Image: Anna Brees\/SMTV)<\/p>\nHe ran out of the restaurant and warned the pair to turn backGordon Hadfield stepped in to help two people he saw entering the water from Sully Island(Image: Anna Brees\/SMTV)<\/p>\n
A quick-thinking restaurant owner \u201csaved the lives\u201d of two swimmers off the coast of the Vale of Glamorgan on Wednesday, October 15. Gordon Hadfield, owner of On the Rocks, which overlooks Swanbridge and Sully Island, just a few hundred yards out at sea, saw two swimmers wading into the water from the island early on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
The pair had walked out to the island from the shore at low tide but things quickly changed as the tide came in. They seemed intent on swimming back to shore having been caught out by the tide and so, instinctively, Mr Hadfield ran outside and grabbed his megaphone to alert the pair to turn around and head back to the island.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, the swimmers listened to Mr Hadfield\u2019s direction and decided to turn back, which a local and the RNLI said could have saved their lives. For the biggest stories in Wales first, sign up to our daily newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n Content cannot be displayed without consent<\/p>\n Swimmers venturing out to the island at times of low tide and then getting trapped and attempting to swim back is a typical sight for Mr Hadfield, having operated his business there for years, and the RNLI said Mr Hadfield had \u201calmost certainly saved lives\u201d over the years by proactively warning swimmers he could foresee getting into difficulty.<\/p>\n The causeway to Sully Island can catch people out, especially those not local to the area. The narrow channel between Sully Island and the mainland acts like a funnel and although the water may appear calm, as the tide rises, water can surge through at speeds of up to seven knots or approximately eight miles per hour – fast enough to knock you off your feet, sweeping you into the cold sea where you could be quickly carried out into the Bristol Channel.<\/p>\n Footage captured by journalist Anna Brees, who lives locally, showed a conversation she had with Mr Hadfield later on Wednesday, at which point the swimmers were still stranded on the island and were clearly visible.<\/p>\n Mr Hadfield told Ms Brees: \u201cI asked them if they\u2019ve got provisions to stay there. They went over early this morning in the dark.\u201d Ms Brees asked Mr Hadfield: \u201cHow did you know they needed rescuing?\u201d Mr Hadfield replied: \u201cBecause they started to walk into the water. They were coming into the water.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms Brees asked Mr Hadfield what would have happened if he hadn\u2019t stepped in to warn them. \u201cThey could have died,\u201d she said, to which Mr Hadfield responded: \u201cPossibly.\u201d<\/p>\n The swimmers were later rescued before Ms Brees managed to get a word with the swimmers when they had safely reached the shore.<\/p>\n One of them told her he had consulted ChatGPT to find tide times before deeming it safe to venture out to the island early on Wednesday. He said: \u201cI made the mistake of using ChatGPT for research to see when the low tide was. It said 9.30am. So we were out on that side and then as soon as you come back over it was literally completely different. A lesson learned for me.\u201d<\/p>\n The area has the second highest tidal range in the world and it isn\u2019t unusual for people to get caught out by it, especially in the summer months. A member of the Coastguard said they were called out to similar incidents at or near the island between 10 and 20 times a year. They explained that while the water could look calm it could be very dangerous.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the RNLI said: \u201cThe RNLI Sully Island water safety team is a team of volunteers from Barry<\/a> Dock and Penarth<\/a> RNLI who patrol Sully Island to prevent people from getting cut off by the tide.<\/p>\n \u201cThey provide advice to walkers and visitors on safe crossing times and dangers, using the causeway at the island as their primary location during high-risk times like bank holidays and school<\/a> breaks. The team also works with the Coastguard to launch lifeboats when rescues are necessary.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s fantastic that the local community and people like Gordon Hadfield are knowledgeable of the dangers. The volunteers and people like Gordon being vigilant and providing early warning has almost certainly saved lives.<\/p>\n \u201cThe proactive approach to educate beach-goers and visitors to Sully Island has reduced the number of RNLI shouts significantly in the area.\u201d<\/p>\n The RNLI advice is that people should not cross to the island if water is already covering the causeway. They advise that if you do become cut off on the island, never try to swim back and always call for help.<\/p>\n Get daily breaking news<\/strong> updates on your phone by joining our WhatsApp community here<\/a>. We occasionally treat members to special offers, promotions and ads from us and our partners. See our Privacy Notice<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He ran out of the restaurant and warned the pair to turn backGordon Hadfield stepped in to help…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[29827,748,4884,57984,84233,16,15,16707,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-502968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-barry","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-penarth","12":"tag-sully","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-vale-of-glamorgan","16":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115381371607456379","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0_SullyIsland.jpg\")
People can access Sully Island easily at times of low tide, but things can change very quickly and visitors to the area are often caught out(Image: John Myers)<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0_Sullyisland.jpg\")
This is the scene within minutes. It’s one of the highest tidal ranges in the world(Image: John Myers)<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0_151025swimmerscutoffatSullyIsland.jpg\")
The swimmers were wise to follow Mr Hadfield’s advice and remained on the island until professional rescuers went out to get them(Image: Anna Brees\/SMTV)<\/p>\n