On successive days at the end of last week. Cowes RNLI Lifeboat was called out to two emergencies in the Solent.
The first happened last Friday (22 October) when a fishing boat was crippled when its fishing gear became fouled by an unknown object on the sea bed, then also became wrapped around the propeller.
The double misfortune occurred off Old Castle Point, East Cowes, late in the morning, involving the Cowes-based seven-metre vessel, Katie.
The lifeboat crew managed to free the gear from its sea bed obstacle, then towed the boat up the River Medina where it could be lifted on to dry land so that the propeller could also be freed.
Another call on Saturday
On Saturday afternoon the lifeboat again raced out of Cowes Harbour, this time in response to a report that two people were in the water and finding it difficult to right their capsized sailing dinghy in a fresh north-westerly off Princes Green, Cowes.
When the lifeboat crew arrived on the scene they found that the dinghy had been righted and the people rescued by the crew of a safety boat from Calshot Activity Centre.
They decided, however, that because of the conditions a second sailing dinghy, crewed by a middle aged man, needed to be towed to the activity centre where it was also based.
These two events brought the number of ‘shouts’ by Cowes lifeboat this year to 41, involving the rescue of 69 persons.
