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Calshot RNLI All Weather Lifeboat 'Sarah Emily Harrop' |
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The last week of June saw Calshot RNLI All Weather Lifeboat ‘Sarah Emily Harrop’ launch three times to conclude a busy first half of the year.
The lifeboat was launched at half past midnight on Monday morning to attend a 55 ft catamaran ‘Flying Cloud’ in Cowes harbour which was taking on water and being battered by the gale force wind and high seas. Recently arrived from a trans Atlantic passage, the yatch was leaking below the waterline and in imminent danger of sinking.
Working with Cowes Rescue and the IOW Fire and Rescue service lifeboat coxswain Diz Carey co ordinated a move to a more sheltered berth enabling the fire engine’s pumps to keep the yatch successfully afloat.
On Wednesday afternoon both Calshot RNLI lifeboats attended a 25 ft yatch which had gone aground with engine failure at the mouth of the Beaulieu river. The vessel which was on passge from Portsmouth to Falmouth with three people on board was refloated and safely towed to a mooring in the river.
Engine failure was also the cause of a call out on Friday afternoon to the 25 ft day fishing boat ‘Blue Reef’. The boat, which had just been collected by its new owner, had managed to drop anchor half a mile off the shore of Lee on Solent. With the wing gusting force 6-7, the lifeboat towed the casualty into Portsmouth.
During the first half of the year Calshot’s All Weather and Inshore lifeboats have launched 51 times in response to Coastguard requests. Last year the station, which was the second busiest in the South East of England, launched 101 times; 2007 is proving so far to be an equally demanding year. |
