Bembridge’s volunteer RNLI lifeboat crew were at sea for over 10 hours yesterday (Sunday) to assist a French fishing trawler that had lost all power.
At 07:50 the All Weather Lifeboat ‘Alfred Albert Williams’ was launched at the request of Solent Coastguard to relieve Selsey RNLI, who had some 6 hours earlier launched themselves to assist a 20m French fishing trawler which had lost all power south of Selsey with 4 crew members on board.
Once Bembridge were on scene, it transpired that the trawler skipper’s brother was about 30 miles away and was planning on towing the casualty vessel to Portsmouth for repairs. After a considerable delay, the tow was eventually established and the Alfred Albert Williams followed close by to provide safety and communications cover; the latter having been particularly difficult from the outset as they had no working VHF and mobile phone link had been via the French Coastguard to the UK Coastguard.
Fortunately, one of the Bembridge RNLI crew spoke reasonable French which helped sort out exactly what was going on.
Once the tow reached the safety of Portsmouth Harbour, the All Weather Lifeboat returned to Bembridge and was rehoused by 18:10.
