Five call outs in one week for Angle Lifeboat Station

Firstly, on Tuesday (Jul 14), Angle’s all-weather lifeboat ‘Mark Mason’ was requested by Milford Haven Coastguard. Shortly before 3am a signal from a yacht that was stuck with engine failure in a position between St Govan and Linney head. It had 3 persons aboard.

The volunteer crews launched and arrived with the casualty vessel around 20 minutes later. A tow was rigged and the vessel was taken and put alongside the mackerel stage pontoon at Milford Marina, arriving around 5:30am. The lifeboat then returned to station.

Shortly before 1:30am on Thursday (Jul 18) the crew were requested to launch to a signal from a 31ft Sailing Catamaran with 1 person aboard. The boat had engine issues and was in a position to the east side of Freshwater West beach.

The vessel had his anchor deployed but he wasn’t unable to hold his position due to the anchor dragging and the vessel was heading towards the beach.

The all-weather lifeboat arrived on scene but was unable to get close enough to get a tow to vessel due to the depth of water. With Catamaran now in danger of being washed ashore the owner managed to recover the anchor and get the engine going enough to be able to get close enough to the lifeboat and receive a tow.

The Catamaran was towed out of danger and towed to Milford Marina where it was put alongside the mackerel stage pontoon.

Shortly after 6pm later that day the all-weather lifeboat Mark Mason was requested by Milford Haven Coastguard to an 11 metre yacht with two persons aboard that had experienced an engine failure east of St. Govan’s head.

After arriving, it was confirmed that all was well aboard the yacht and a tow was rigged and both headed back to Milford arriving at Milford docks entrance 2 hours later. The yacht was taken alongside the lifeboat and then towed and put alongside the mackerel stage pontoon.

On Friday (Jul 19) the pagers sounded shortly before 9pm to a report of a yacht that was adrift in Dale bay. As the lifeboat proceeded it was confirmed that a local fishing boat had managed to get the yacht in tow and put it on a nearby vacant mooring. After confirming all was OK the lifeboat was released and returned to station.

Later that week on Saturday (Jul 20) at 2:42pm the lifeboat crews were paged to launch by Milford Haven Coastguard for the 5th time this week. The Coastguard had received report from a member of the public that a person was in difficulty in the water at Marloes sand beach. On route, reports came through that the person had been helped ashore by other beach goers so lifeboat was stood down to return to station.

Photo: RNLI/Angle