Busy week for Wick lifeboat
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Wick lifeboat responded to two incidents over a 24-hour period this week.
On Tuesday evening the lifeboat was launched to go to the assistance of a 30ft yacht with two people on board. The vessel was struggling against strong tides and strong southerly winds to the north of Freswick.
The lifeboat arrived on scene approximately 30 minutes after launching at 8pm. Once on scene a decision was made that the best course of action was to transfer two of the lifeboat crew to the yacht to assist and rig up a tow.
Having successfully established a tow rope the vessel was delivered safely to Wick harbour four-and-a-half hours after launching.
Coxswain Mark Cormack said it was a dirty night with a strong 40-knot wind, driving rain and three-metre seas. "It was great teamwork among the crew which brought the shout to a successful conclusion," he said.
The next incident occurred on Wednesday afternoon when another yacht, the Vermouse, had steering failure 20 miles south-east of Wick near the Beatrice offshore wind farm turbines. A spokesman for the Wick lifeboat said: "Weather conditions at sea were challenging for a single-handed skipper. It was rolling in three-metre seas as the steering had gone."
The guard vessel for the wind farm, Replenish, responded to a pan-pan call from the Vermouse.
"The Replenish secured a tow line to the yacht, holding them head-on to the sea until the lifeboat arrived," the spokesman said.
The Wick lifeboat then took the line and towed the vessel into Wick harbour, taking three hours to complete the journey at around 7pm.
No casualties were reported from either incident.
