Campbeltown lifeboat call-outs to cargo vessel, RIB and dinghy

Campbeltown RNLI station received three call-outs between Saturday and Monday to assist vessels from all sections of the marine spectrum. In the early hours of Saturday morning, the all-weather lifeboat was launched, under coxswain Fraser McNair, to assist a cargo boat which was taking on water at the entrance to Campbeltown Loch. The coastal trading vessel, heading for Furnace carrying 800 tonnes of stone, was taken to Campbeltown harbour where the water was pumped out. Later, at 12.30pm, the crew, still under coxswain Fraser McNair, were called to locate and assist an inflatable craft, carrying a father and son, which was lost in thick fog off Macharioch, near Southend. The three-metre dinghy’s reported location was the ‘south end of the peninsula’, a broad area which could have made it difficult to find, but it was discovered quickly thanks to a passing motor cruiser which came upon it and waited with it until the lifeboat arrived. The pair, who had been on a fishing trip, were picked up and landed safely ashore at Macharioch. On Monday, at 8.45am, the lifeboat was called out to Macharioch again, this time after a report from a member of the public that a RIB had run aground at Arranman’s Barrels reef. Under coxswain David Cox, the lifeboat crew discovered that the RIB had hit the reef at speed at low tide. The boat’s two crew, five passengers and a dog were taken back to Campbeltown before the lifeboat returned to the reef to wait for high tide to float the RIB, before towing it back to Campbeltown. Campbeltown RNLI station will host a gala, raft race and open day on June 30 to raise funds to continue saving lives at sea.