Yacht safely escorted to Westray by Kirkwall Lifeboat
(Picture: Craig Taylor)
Kirkwall Lifeboat returned to station last night, Tuesday, after being called out to a yacht tangled in fishing gear off North Ronaldsay earlier in the day.
Kirkwall RNLI said that the lifeboat was launched shortly before 1pm, following the Coastguard informing them that a 36 foot sailing yacht with two people on board had become entangled in creel ropes in a strong tidal stream, and had put out a distress call to the Coastguards.
The lifeboat reached the yacht just after 2.30pm to find that the vessel had got free of the fishing ropes, but the yacht crew had problems transmitting on VHF radio.
The yacht was then escorted to the safety of Pierowall Harbour in Westray by 6pm.
With the yacht safely in harbour the lifeboat was released to return to Kirkwall, arriving just before 8pm.