Fish supper for rescued visitor

A Dutchman was rescued by Stonehaven RNLI on Wednesday night after his yacht was left high and dry by the tide.

The team was dispatched just after 7pm amid reports of a vessel stranded on the rocks of Stonehaven Bay.

When the inshore lifeboat volunteers and coastguard arrived at the vessel, they found the sole occupant shaken but unharmed.

He was taken to the nearby fish and chip shop, The Bay, where the staff treated him to a fish supper.

Susan Leiper, of the Stonehaven lifeboat, said: “It was a guy from Holland who got a little disorientated in the dark on his way down to Stonehaven and found himself in the bay, and as the tide went out he became stuck on the rocks.

“We got paged around 7pm and took him off the boat, and he came to The Bay where he was fed his supper courtesy of the staff there, which was good of them. He was very impressed with the number of people that all came out to help him, and was very thankful.”

The crew went back to the yacht when the tide was right and they were able to tow it back to the harbour and were back at the station by midnight.

There was some slight rudder damage to the boat but otherwise it was fine .

The man stayed in the care of the team at the Stonehaven lifeboat station until they could find out the condition of the vessel.