Lifeboats come to the aid of yacht aground at island

The yacht was was towed to the marina by the Amble RNLI all-weather lifeboat. Picture by crewman Esmond Coulter.

The call came at 4.55pm following a mayday from a yacht aground on the north end of Coquet Island.

There were two people onboard.

An Amble RNLI spokesman said: “The ILB arrived on scene first and went to a fishing boat, which had recovered the two people from the water, and brought them onto the ALB where they were greeted with blankets and a nice warm cup of tea and checked over by our casualty care crew.

“Once it was established that the yacht was not going to be moved further onto the rocks, both boats returned back to station at 5.30pm and gave the casualties some dry clothes and a nice warm shower until the tide started coming back in.

“By 8pm, both boats re-launched and went back to the yacht, where a crewman was put aboard to rig up the tow line so the ALB could hold the vessel as the tide lifted – once rigged the crewman was taken off and the ILB collected the salvage pump in case of any water ingress.

Once the vessel floated off, two crewmen were put aboard to assess the yacht.

“The vessels headed back to Amble marina where they were met by Amble Coastguards to secure the yacht alongside.

“Once the skipper was happy, both boats returned to station and made ready for service at 10.30pm.”