Lifeboat crew in rescue success after 11 hours
A SCOTTISH lifeboat crew battled through heavy seas for 11 hours to rescue a trawler cast adrift after its gearbox failed.
Members of Tobermory RNLI’s volunteer crew ventured out at 8.30am on Sunday after receiving reports of a fishing vessel with gearbox failure seven miles west of the Isle of Coll.
During the rescue operation a tow rope snapped twice in rough seas, with winds gusting up to 60mph.
The lifeboat crew managed to re-established the tow, despite the boat drifting on to rocks, and guided the fishing vessel back to Tobermory.
Coxswain Andrew McHaffie said: “This was a difficult and long service and we had to establish several tows with the fishing boat in very rough conditions.
“We ’ r e all ext remely pleased that there was a good result at the end of a very long day.”
The rescue took place as Scotland was battered by rain and high winds that combined with melted snow to bringing flooding to parts of Dumfries and Galloway.
Flood alerts have been put in place by t he Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) in many areas, with rain forecast to continue today.
The warnings came as a new flood warning service for the east coast was launched.
Twenty-eight coastal areas connected to the fir ths of Forth and Tay will be covered by the service offered by Sepa.
Residents from the Scottish Borders up to Angus can receive advance flood warnings to their phone, 24 hours a day.
A campaign to encourage people to sign up to receive the free warnings was launched in Edinburgh. l A man has died after being caught in a freak lightning storm while out walking near his home in North Argyll.
Timothy Boyd, 54, from Port Appin, had been walking on the local Jubilee Bridge, beside Castle Stalker, on Sunday.
The man was found on the ground by a passerby. It is unclear if he had been hit by lightning.