Incredible moment dog walker stranded on a darkened cliff is saved by using her mobile phone torch to signal rescuers at sea
- Rachael Wood, from Cardiff, was left stranded after the tide cut off her path
- She was visiting Charmouth in Dorset to search for fossils on the beach
- Lifeboat crew spotted flash of light from from her phone and rescued her
A dog walker stranded on a dark cliff used her mobile phone’s torch to signal rescuers at sea.
Rachael Wood, 33, had to climb 65ft up the steep cliff with her two dogs after she was cut off by the tide while fossil hunting.
Mrs Wood, from Cardiff, had expected to find a coastal path to lead her to safety but soon realised she was stranded – and when darkness fell she called 999 on her Samsung smartphone.
She had only been visiting Charmouth in Dorset for the day after travelling to the Jurassic Coast ‘on a whim’. She spent around an hour searching for fossils on the beach before realising the sea was closing in around her.
Rachael Wood, 33, had to climb 65ft up the steep cliff with her two dogs after she was cut off by the tide while fossil hunting
A lifeboat crew spent 10 minutes scouring the blackened cliff from 400 yards out before they spotted the flash of light from Mrs Wood’s phone
She then scooped up her two dogs and scrambled up the steep face.
A lifeboat crew spent 10 minutes scouring the blackened cliff from 400 yards out before they spotted the flash of light from Mrs Wood’s phone that she waved above her head.
She said the crew were not always visible to her during the search and she turned the light on and off in a bid to preserve the battery on her mobile device – which ran out of charge a short time after the rescue operation.
Despite being very cold and shaken up, Mrs Wood was otherwise fine and was able to drive herself home.
Mrs Wood said the crew (pictured) were not always visible to her during the search and she turned the light on and off in a bid to preserve the battery on her mobile device
Pictured: Rachael Wood, 33, is winched away from the Dorset cliff on a helicopter after the RNLI found her
Her two Terrier dogs, Kiwi and Pickle, were carried down the cliff by a coastguard officer and taken back to shore in the lifeboat.
Mrs Wood said: ‘I just climbed up as quick as I could with my dogs and phoned the coastguard.
‘I let me family know what was going on but told them not to contact me because I thought I’d need my phone if it got dark.
‘It’s a good job I did because I ended up using my torch to get attention.’
She added: ‘I didn’t get my phone out until I saw the lifeboat approaching because initially I thought they were coming by land.
‘Periodically I waved the torch above my head for about ten minutes.
It was decided that it was too risky to lead Mrs Wood back down the cliff in the dark so a coastguard helicopter winched her off
‘They weren’t always visible so I kept turning it off to try and save battery.
‘I was waving it around in all directions and thankfully they found me. It was a big relief.
‘Where I was probably wasn’t the best position but they were brilliant and got me back safely.’
It was decided that it was too risky to lead Mrs Wood back down the cliff in the dark so a coastguard helicopter winched her off.
The rescue began at about 4.30pm and took four-and-a-half hours.
It was attended by Lyme Regis and West Bay coastguards as well as the Lyme Regis lifeboat crew.