On its first patrol of the season, a new beach safety team led a woman, her son and their dog to safety minutes before they were cut off by the tide.
Hunstanton RNLI station launched a shore team last summer to warn people of the dangers at Brancaster, one of the beaches where visitors can put themselves at risk if they do not take account of tide times or linger too far from the shore.
As Debbie Carter De Bois and Sam Rouse kept watch over the crowds on Thursday afternoon, they noticed a woman, a boy and a dog on the far side of a channel which was filling rapidly as the tide turned.
"We walked out and waved at them to move along," said Miss De Bois. "When we got to them, the boy was knee deep.
"When we spoke to them, they said they didn't realise how fast the tides come in, and we've got some really high tides this weekend."
Mr Rouse said: "It was a pretty close call, the water was coming in around them pretty fast. We managed to get them off in time."
On Good Friday, they watched as people crossed the channel at low tide and walked out to the surf.
But as the flood began and a predicted 7.5m tide began to build, all returned to the shore before the sea could catch them out.
While sandy beaches look inviting as the tide goes out, low-lying gullies can flood quickly with powerful currents when the sea turns, cutting people off from the shore.
The greatest danger comes on the so-called spring tides which occur each month, where the sea goes out the furthest on the ebb but comes in rapidly after it turns before rising higher than normal.
Hunstanton RNLI launched its lifeboat and hovercraft 49 times last year.
The majority of 'shouts' attended by the station's volunteers involved rescuing people from Brancaster and nearby Scolt Head.
While most ended safely, with the crew ferrying those trapped on sandbanks to safety, there have been fatalities along the low-lying coastline, along with a heroic rescue where a crew member leapt into the sea to save a young woman being carried away who would almost certainly have drowned.
A plaque at the entrance to the beach remembers five-year-old Jake Parker, who drowned after he was swept away by the tide in August 2000.
"Just paddling happily on the beach," it says. "And now taken from earthly reach."
Miss De Bois, 47, works as a teaching assistant at Alderman Peel High School in Wells and grew up sailing around its harbour.
"I've always had it drummed into me from a young age about the tides and water safety," she said.
Mr Rouse, 43, works as an operations manager for the Duke of Edinburgh Awards scheme in Leicester and has a home in Brancaster.
"I got involved because I wanted to give something back," he said.
While the team currently has five members, Miss De Bois said more volunteers were needed.
Members of the National Coastwatch Institution also keep watch on the sands, from a look-out station it opened last year.
Deputy station manager Richard Burrows said it dealt with 13 incidents last year.
"We had injuries on the beach, there was a dinghy which had lost power and was drifting, we had a kayaker who'd got into difficulties who was clinging onto one of the channel buoys," he said.
Volunteers keep watch over the most dangerous period after low water when the tide begins to turn, calling HM Coastguard if they see anyone in danger.
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