VISITORS to Osborne House who took the walk to what was once Queen Victoria's private beach were given the extra treat of watching a Border Force team in action.
Teams in wetsuits totalling 18-20 men moved out from their Border Force vessel, somewhere between Osborne Bay, near East Cowes, and Fishbourne, and conducted what appeared to be an exercise using rafts and jet skis yesterday afternoon (Friday).
Border Force is a law enforcement command within the Home Office, responsible for securing the UK border by carrying out immigration and customs controls for people and goods entering UK waters.
For one visitor to Osborne House, Baz Pearce, of Sandown, it was a real treat watching the operation, which lasted for more than an hour.
He said: "At about 2pm yesterday, we initialy thought there may have been an operation, with the Border Force team sending the raft towards Osborne Beach.
"They had blue flashing lights going, which made it more convincing, so I started snapping as many pics as possible.
"But then we soon realised it was possibly only a training excercise.
"There was even a person in the water saved by a jet ski, with about ten people in the raft, some with life jackets and some without.
"This went on for at least an hour, before all the boats and jet skis scrambled back to the the Border Force ship and loaded everything back on.
"It was all so quick in the end, but fantastic to watch something so real."
A Home Office spokesman said the Border Force do not comment on operational matters.
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