It is a stifling hot Sunday afternoon and Brighton and Hove seafront is heaving with people.

Coastguard Ross Greenhill - call sign Southdowns Sierra - is poised for action.

In the previous week he and his team have dragged a body from the sea, rescued an elderly swimmer who had a heart attack, recovered a body from the bottom of Beachy Head and helped resuscitate a youth who jumped off the Palace Pier in Brighton.

The heat, the water, the sheer number of people and, in some cases, the alcohol they have consumed, are a recipe for disaster. Someone, somewhere is likely to get into trouble.

Ross is the only full-time Coastguard in Sussex. His patch stretches from the Belle Tout lighthouse, near Beachy Head, to Pagham, near Bognor.

It is one of the busiest stretches of coastline in Britain and today is one of the busiest days of the year.

Ross said: "Some weekends we are non-stop from 8am to 11pm with five or six calls a day. Whether we're busy depends on the weather.

"Sometimes, if it's really hot, people can't be bothered to do anything. When it's cooler, people have more energy."

Several carry on partying for half the night, head down to the beach and then decide to go for a swim while still under the influence. Never a good idea.

Ross said: "Last year we had a fatality involving a Londoner who'd been partying all night and then went into the water."

There are also younger victims of alcohol and the sea. In one case, a nine-year-old boy was left alone on the beach while his parents went shopping.

He was drinking beer and when he staggered on to the Palace Pier was so drunk he urinated down a man's leg.

Outraged, the man picked the child up and hurled him into the sea. Luckily Coastguards were on hand to pull him out so his stomach, full of water, could be pumped out.

Ross has 50 volunteers working with him. Together they provide round-the-clock cover and respond to any emergency. Calls for help can range from missing people and boats in distress to people or animals trapped on cliffs.

Brighton and Hove's population swells during the summer and produces lots of shoreline incidents.

Worthing, with its more elderly population, suffers from "cold water shock syndrome".

Ross, based at Newhaven, said: "We have had several cases of older people who get too hot and then jump into the sea head-first to cool off without thinking about the effect cold has on their body. It causes a heart attack.

"We believe it caused eight deaths in seven days last summer."

Littlehampton has the longest stretch of "playground" coast but is less populated.

At the Palace Pier, youths are ignoring safety advice and leaping off groynes and the pier into the sea.

Ross said: "You can talk to them about the dangers but they ignore you.

"I've even started asking them for their names and addresses. I tell them it's so that when the helicopter picks them up or the coroner needs to identify them, we'll know who they are."

At Brighton Marina, a 25ft sports cruiser has been towed in after its engine failed and it began drifting.

Ross has five teams based at Birling Gap, Newhaven, Brighton and Hove, Shoreham and Littlehampton.

Their primary role is search and rescue. They are backed up by their HQ at Lee-on-the-Solent with rescue boats, a helicopter and a plane based in Kent.

As Ross's day comes to a close, the expected emergency shout for Southdowns Sierra has not materialised.

He said: "The sea can be great fun but it can also be very dangerous.

"Our advice is: Before you go to the beach check the weather and check the tides."