Saturday 26th June 2010
Date: Saturday 26th June 2010
Wind: SE 2
Visibility: Good
Sea state: 1m swell
Time of launch: 1630hrs
Time of return: 1800hrs
Boats launched: ILB
Reason: The volunteer crew members of Amble RNLI Station were paged at 16.34 on Saturday and the request from HM Coastguard was to initially launch both boats. However, on receiving further information about the casualty, it was decided that rather than deploy both boats at this busy time, the ILB was more than capable of towing a small vessel such as a RIB back to safety. Therefore, the All-weather Lifeboat (ALB) ‘The Four Boys’ and her crew remained on standby should their services be needed to assist the ILB on this particular rescue.
The ILB quickly located the casualty near Bondicarr rocks just south of Amble, and discovered she was a 5.5 metre long RIB ‘Sweet Pea’ with two persons on board who were cold and wet upon arrival, but otherwise safe and well. Their main engine had failed and their small backup engine was incapable of overcoming the sea conditions and the strength of the local current.
Once it became apparent that the crew of Sweet Pea were not in immediate danger and that the mechanical failure could not be remedied at the scene, the ILB Helmsman decided that the best course of action would be to tow Sweet Pea back to the safety of Amble Marina.
The ILB then proceeded to tow Sweet Pea back to the safety of Amble slipway and was then re-fuelled and made ready for service again by the crew.