Dungeness and Rye Harbour lifeboats rescue fishing vessel in fog bound Channel
Dungeness RNLI and Rye Harbour RNLI have come together to rescue a stricken 15ft fishing boat broken down in fog on the edge of one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.
On 5 July 2018 at 9.54am, Dungeness RNLI's Shannon class lifeboat, 13-02 The Morrell,
was requested to launch by HM Coastguard to assist a broken down fishing vessel in the English Channel.
The fishing boat was found four nautical miles south east of Dungeness. The fishing boat with two people on board was on the edge of the south west shipping lane and with the visibility closing in Dungeness lifeboat and her volunteer crew under the command of Coxswain Stuart Adams quickly assessed the situation and decided the best course of action was to remove the fishing boat from this dangerous situation as quickly and safely as possible.
The Dungeness crew recovered the fishing boat's anchor and got her under tow towards the safe haven of Rye Harbour. Coxswain Adams requested that RNLI Rye Harbour’s Atlantic 85 lifeboat B842 Hello Herbie 11 to take over the tow into the harbour due to the low tide in the river.
Having towed the fishing boat through a very busy and very foggy English Channel, the two lifeboats met three nautical miles south of Rye and the casualty was passed to the care of Rye Harbour lifeboat. Dungeness RNLI lifeboat was then released from service and returned to station.
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