Three red-faced RNLI volunteers had to call upon colleagues to come to their aid after the RIB they were travelling on got into trouble off the coast of Scotland
Three RNLI lifeboatmen were saved by their own rescue boat after the leisure RIB they were on broke down off the Scottish coast.
Portpatrick Lifeboat was launched shortly after 10pm on Monday to go to the aid of the 10-metre RIB, which had suffered drive failure about 13 miles offshore.
The RIB, which was on its way back from Northern Ireland, had seven people on board, including Portpatrick Lifeboat volunteers Ian Hoad, (the boat’s owner), and John and Kirstyn Connor. The RIB had been taken in tow by another vessel but the tow was transferred to the lifeboat when it arrived on scene about 35 minutes later.
“We were very reluctant, it was one of the last resorts,” said Mr Hoad’s wife, Wilma, who was also on board the RIB. “If we had had a set of oars on board we would certainly have rowed back home rather than phoning out the lifeboat,” she added.
The lifeboat arrived back in Portpatrick at around 11.30pm with the RIB in tow and its embarrassed passengers were landed safely.
The three stranded lifeboat volunteers will take some time to live down their rescue – not only were photos of the incident snapped from the lifeboat but, according to Mrs Hoad, “”The village was waiting for us with their cameras as well.”
Photo: RNLI
