From our friend Umblepie:
The weather in Orkney over the last few days has been wet, windy and generally wild! Last night the Kirkwall lifeboat was called out to rescue a yacht which had broken its anchors whilst riding out the storm in Mill Bay, Stronsay. The yacht I believe, had several on board, and with its sails shredded, had to be towed by the lifeboat into Stronsay harbour. The sea was very rough, resulting in one of the lifeboat crew falling on deck and injuring his back. The Air/Sea Rescue helicopter attended, collected the injured man and conveyed him away to hospital. This all happened during the hours of darkness and in atrocious weather conditions. Thank God for these brave and skilled rescuers, and may He bless them, and may Our Blessed Lady, Mary, Star of the Sea, protect and guide them.
Tip:Umblepie
From the website:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.orcadian.co.uk
"Coastguard alert over Norwegian yacht
Emergency services were called to a yacht anchored off Stronsay on Thursday afternoon, after Shetland Coastguard received a phone call from a Stronsay resident.
On inspection, the Coastguard helicopter found the two men on board the Norwegian-registered Innana to be simply riding out the windy weather, and there were no signs of distress.
A Coastguard spokesman said the Kirkwall lifeboat was called to attend first, but due to the rough sea conditions, the cox decided not to continue to the yacht, so the helicopter was tasked.
"The lifeboat would have gone in the Bay if there had been signs of distress," the spokesman said. "On making radio contact the men said they were low on fuel and had anchored to shelter from the weather."
My Best Wishes to you all
A.B.
Reference to the above extract from the 'Orcadian', this does not relate to the actual rescue which occurred during the night of Saturday 24th October/Sunday 25th October. The same boat was involved, but the circumstances were dramatically different. I understand that some of the lifeboat crew were interviewed on BBC Radio Orkney, either on Sunday or Monday, also that details were shown on Scottish TV.
ReplyDeleteFor the full story see
ReplyDeletehttp://claremont.islandblogging.co.uk/2009/10/28/rescue-of-yacht-in-mill-bay-of-stronsay/