Three fishermen whose boat was crippled by its own anchor rope were literally hauled out of their predicament in a wind-swept Solent by Cowes RNLI lifeboat yesterday (Wednesday).
The emergency began just before 1pm when the fishermen radioed that their anchor rope had become wrapped around one of the two propellers of their 32 foot motor-cruiser Arco Bellina off Thorness.
They had gone on a fishing trip from the boat’s mooring in the River Medina, off East Cowes.
When Cowes lifeboat, with Matt Chessell at the helm, arrived on the scene the Arco Bellina had drifted inshore and was aground.
Despite the choppy conditions the lifeboat managed to tow the motor-cruiser into deeper water and then back to its river mooring.
The whole exercise, conducted in a brisk north-easterly, had taken the lifeboat’s volunteer crew nearly two hours.
