News / Aith lifeboat crew delay wedding celebrations to answer trawler call-out
AITH LIFEBOAT crew were called out to a near-10 hour incident on Saturday – before returning home to celebrate the wedding of their crew mate.
Proving that the RNLI are always on hand to answer the call of duty, the Aith crew were called out at 7am yesterday (Saturday) following reports of a Lerwick-registered fishing vessel taking on water after a burst pipe.
The 26-metre trawler raised the alarm when water levels began rising in her engine room, around half a mile to the east of Foula.
The crew of six RNLI volunteers left Aith reached the scene by 8.20am, finding the quick-thinking fishermen onboard had managed to halt the flooding and were undertaking a repair.
They had also put down a trawl door to act as an anchor, and to prevent them drifting any closer to Foula’s shore.
The lifeboat was asked to remain around the area on standby, and offered engineering assistance, extra tools and additional pumps while a welding job was undertaken onboard.
With permission from Maritime and Coastguard Agency, the Aith lifeboat made a brief stop in Walls harbour to put a crewman ashore who had wedding duties to carry out for crew-mate Chris ‘Kiffy’ Smith.
When the incident was resolved, and the fishing vessel was safely underway once more, the lifeboat crew returned to Aith by 5.30pm.
There they swapped their yellow welly boots and orange kits for their dancing shoes and gladrags, finding themselves in good time to attend the evening wedding reception.
Aith Lifeboat wished crew member Chris and his new wife Susan, who is the daughter of fellow RNLI crew member David, all the best on their happy day.
