Port St Mary Lifeboat Station - Callouts: 4th September 2003.
A 42-year-old woman set out from Port Erin at 9.30am on Thursday in a 16 foot long white fibreglass open boat to go fishing around the Calf of Man . However the vessel suffered engine trouble leaving the woman adrift for several hours.
The alarm was raised later in the day by her husband when he had returned home from work and found that she failed to return home.She had tried to contact her husband by mobile phone at tea time but the signal wasn't strong enough to make the call. He contacted the Coastguard, informed them of the situation and said he would go to sea with a friend to search for his wife. He returned at about 8 pm without locating her.
At 8.30 pm a major search and rescue mission was launched. The search initially focused off the south coast around the Calf of Man where the missing woman had been fishing and had been seen at midday. This was conducted by Port St Mary ALB and ILB and by 9.15 with the aid of Rescue 122, a RAF Seaking SAR helicopter from Valley, N Wales.
Coastguard teams from Castletown, Port Erin, Peel and Douglas commenced checking harbours and conducting shoreline searches from Port St Mary to the Calf Sound onwards north to Niabyl .
Port Erin ILB and Peel ALB were tasked to conduct a sea search from Niabyl south to the Calf of Man. The Irish Coastguard helicopter Rescue 116 also joined in the search.
In the late evening news was recieved that the boat had been spotted to the north of Braddha Head around 2.30 pm. The search became more concentrated on the south west side of the Island.
At 12:45 am a helicopter from the Irish Coastguard using infrared equipment located the missing boat 5 miles west south west of Peel and an RAF Sea King helicopter winched the woman to safety. Port St Mary ALB proceeded to the scene, arriving as the winchman was lowered to the boat. Shortly after Port Erin ILB arrived - once the women was winched on board the helicopter, Port Erin ILB placed a towline on her craft and towed it back to Port Erin.
It landed at the National Sports Centre, Douglas, at 1.04am and the woman was taken to Noble's Hospital for a check-up. She was discharged a few hours later.
Port St Mary ALB returned to station to refuel at 1:30am. Port Erin ILB brought the small boat into Port Erin at 1:45 am.
Edited 14-Sept -03