Emergency services / Aith lifeboat in Christmas Day call-out
A young fisherman had a lucky escape on Christmas Day when his creel boat lost power off Vementry and was drifting towards rocks at Muckle Roe in strong south-westerly winds.
Aith lifeboat was called out at around 6.30pm to assist the 10 metre Wild Rose (OB401) with one crew on board.
The lifeboat crew managed to get a line on board the vessel, which at that time was near rocks to the west of Muckle Roe, and towed her back to Aith where they arrived at around 9pm.
Aith lifeboat coxswain, John Robertson, was sitting down to Christmas pudding with his family when the alarm was raised.
He said he would like to thank the local RNLI volunteers for showing such commitment, and answering their pagers on Christmas Day.
“Most of the crew were finishing up Christmas dinner, or visiting what family they could, when they were called into action.
“They still showed up to this shout in rapid time, despite poor sea conditions, and used their training to perform a successful rescue. This was a time critical operation. If we hadn’t been able to respond so quickly, there might have been a different outcome.”
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