A 34 foot yacht that went hard aground in the mud of Beaulieu River led to the launching of Cowes RNLI lifeboat on Friday afternoon.
The lifeboat arrived to find a man and a woman aboard the yacht, by then heavily leaning over because of the receding tide.
Also at the scene were Lymington coastguards and the Lepe-based Solent lifeboat – which ferried the woman to Bucklers Hard.
Kedge anchor deployed
With the acceptance that it would probably not be until the early hours of Saturday morning before the tide allowed the yacht to float free, the yacht’s kedge anchor was deployed to help give it more stability when this happened.
Two hours
After Solent Coastguards agreed Cowes lifeboat could stand down in the meantime, it recrossed the Solent, to arrive back at the station at 7.30pm – over two hours after launching.
News shared by George on behalf of Cowes RNLI. Ed
