Barrow Lifeboat Station’s volunteer crew launched their inshore lifeboat this afternoon to go to the aid of a dinghy which had broken down and got into difficulty off Piel Island.
The alarm was raised at 1:50pm by RNLI crew at Roa Island who observed the 14-foot dinghy struggling against the tide and strengthening wind close to Piel Island.
The crew was paged and the inshore lifeboat, ‘Vision of Tamworth’, was launched at 2:03pm with Andy Baxter at the helm, assisted by two crew. The lifeboat made the short passage across the Walney Channel where it assisted another small dinghy in towing the casualty back to Piel Island.
The lifeboat returned to the boathouse at 2:15pm where it was washed down and made ready for the next launch.
The wind at the time of the incident was west south westerly, Force 6, with the high tide at 1:54pm with a height of 8.8 metres.
