Amble RNLI’s busy summer
The Four Boys towing yacht Happy Lass which suffered engine failure
The second week of July was a busy time for the lifeboat crews. The first callout by the coastguard was to a yacht with a fouled propeller, five miles south of Coquet Island. A fishing rope had got entangled and the boat had lost propulsion. When the Four Boys arrived on the scene, Coxswain David Bell decided to tow it into Blyth harbour, as the tide would be too low to get into Amble.
Both lifeboats were out for the second callout, to search for a missing yacht, which had been reported to be in difficulty just south of the Farnes. There was no trace of it, so the search was moved south of Coquet Island. The Sea King helicopter was also searching. The mouth of the Coquet and even the marina were searched in case it had managed to get into port, to no avail. After two hours, the coast guard called off the search, deciding it may have been a false report.
The third call that week was from a small yacht with engine failure, six miles north of Amble. It was reached in 20 minutes and safely towed back to Amble.
In the last week of July, the coastguard called the lifeboat out to rescue an eight metre angling boat, The Wasp, with three people on board and complete engine failure. Again it was safely towed into harbour.
The swift action was able to be undertaken by the fact that The Wasp was suitably equipped with VHF radio and all necessary safety equipment. However, we would like to remind every one that mobile telephones are not recommended as a means of emergency communication at sea as they cannot be picked up on radio direction equipment.
