Oh no!
There's been a lot of callouts for that this summer mate so you're not alone.
At least you're both safe 👍
I only let them go out when the tide is coming in for that very reason.
Offshore wind, tide going out. I gave them a warning not to go out beyond where they could stand up.
Whilst I was finishing off inflating the 2nd board, my youngest asks to take the first one. Again, warn her to stay close to the shore where she can stand up. Assuming she will, we stupidly let her go out without her bouyancy vest. About 5 mins later, my missus squeals that our youngest is too far out. Next thing, she's in the water off the board. About 100m out.
I didn't have chance to get my wetsuit or bouyancy vest on before grabbing the other board and heading out to her.
She was back on the board but in a bit of a state when I got to her as she couldn't get back and had lost an aqua shoe. I turned her toward shore, gave her a push, and told her to paddle hard. I could have got back with some effort, but she couldn't paddle hard enough and the wind kept turning her. After a couple of failed attempts, plus me trying to tow her, I decided best bet was to paddle diagonally toward one of the rock promontories that stick out about 100m. We were doing well at first, but then she tired again and began to get pushed further out, so I had to go over to her. I lashed the two boards together, figuring we could take a side each and give that a go, but all we were essentially doing was staying still. About an hour had gone by this time and we were both getting exhausted, now about 150m-200m out. I had a worry when I went really dizzy, knowing I couldn't afford to fall in. I was hoping Mrs R our my eldest daughter would have called the Coastguard by now, so kept looking round but no boats. Next plan was to try to reach the next rock promontory that stretched further out but, after more paddling, she couldn't go on and I was almost done in, too.
Then I turned and saw a RIB coming over to us. It was a private boat and they kindly took us on board. I assumed they'd take us back toward the beach, but they instead took us to Rhosneigr, over half a mile away. Was just so grateful I didn't feel it appropriate to say anything. We then had a long walk back, though, over some unpleasant ground when you're barefoot (and daughter only had one shoe), with me lugging two paddleboards that were acting like sails in the stiff breeze.
When we were about halfway back, I noticed a helicopter over about where we'd been picked up. I think "Oh, some dickhead's got themselves in difficulty... oh". There were some of the coastgaurd team waiting for us on our return. And a wife that figured it was all my fault.
With hindsight, I did make some big mistakes...