A day out sailing turned into a lifeboat rescue for one family yesterday (Monday) after they issued a pan pan call to Solent Coastguard.
Yarmouth RNLI was tasked to launch at 09:50 to assist the 23ft yacht ‘Pegasus’, whose skipper felt he was out of his depth in the rough seas 1 mile west of the Needles, on his passage from Poole to Portsmouth with the family.
With the high wind and the rolling sea it was not going to be possible to do a transfer straight to the all weather lifeboat for the family of four – including two children – so the smaller Y boat was used with two volunteer crew members proceeding to the yacht. One crew member went on board to take control of the yacht as the other member made two separate trips to transfer the casualties safely to the lifeboat.
The yacht and lifeboat returned to Yarmouth Harbour were they were met by The Needles Coastguard Rescue team who issued some advice to the skipper.
