After a very quiet October, we had two incidents last night (Sunday/Monday). The first was a 34ft motor boat out of Whale Island with 8 elderly passengers that had earlier in the day gone aground in Portsmouth Harbour and having re-floated had prop wrapped. Because of the strong winds and difficulty getting from Langstone to Portsmouth, Portsmouth RNLI recommended to Solent Coastguard that our ALB was better suited for the task. The Alfred Albert Williams therefore launched at around 21:30; on arrival on the scene they found the motorboat being towed very slowly towards Whale Island by an MOD Police RIB. An alongside tow was set up and the boat was soon back on her pontoon berth. Just prior to leaving the harbour a report was received that the mooring lines of a 35ft fishing boat in the Town Camber had possibly parted and it was not known if there was anyone onboard. In the event no one was and it was also found that only one of the lines had parted. She was soon re-moored and the Alfred Albert Williams headed back to Bembridge. The very high tide and easterly swell made recovery difficult and after a number of attempts, it was decided to moor up just off the Station until about 02:15 by which time the tide had dropped and the swell had decreased, allowing a quick & smooth recovery.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Nov 2013 17:55:00 +0000