Port St Mary Lifeboat Station - Callouts: 23rd April 2002.
Weather: Wind WSW force 3 to 4; thick fog; visablity less than 100 metres
The call out came at approximately 7:40pm, to assist a 30 foot yacht, "Scar Mari", which was reported as lost in thick fog to the 4 miles to the west of the Chickens Rock lighthouse.
The yacht was located within 20 minutes thanks to the use of VHF direction finding and radar. It was then towed 8 miles back to Port St Mary, and arrived safely at 9:15pm. The single crew member, had been on passage from Holyhead on his way to Peel.
Five crew of the Port St Mary Lifeboat had just set out to conduct a regular Tuesday night exercise when the call came, and five members of the Baltimore lifeboat crew who had been on-board the vessel at the time for a brief trip to experience what a Trent lifeboat can do, joined them in the rescue.
The Baltimore lifeboat crewmembers had arrived at 3 pm that afternoon with
relief Tyne class lifeboat "Mariners Friend", 47-029, en-route home
from Port Patrick. The following morning they continued there passage back to
the SW corner of Eire and were due to call at Kilmore Quay the following night
before finishing their trip on Thursday.
Edited 25-Apr -02