Bembridge RNLI’s All Weather Lifeboat was launched down the slipway into extremely foggy conditions to locate the source of a distress alert last night (Wednesday).
Solent Coastguard tasked the volunteer crew at around 22:10 after receiving the concerning alert from a US registered 14m sailing yacht, the ‘Otra Vez’.
Visibility was very poor at around 10 metres so progress to the position 2nm east of Seaview, which had been received in the automated distress alert, was quite slow.
Just before starting an expanding box search Solent Coastguard advised that they had located the ‘Otra Vez’ in Cowes and that the alert had been confirmed as a false alarm.
The Alfred Albert Williams Tamar-class Lifeboat stood down and returned to the Offshore Boathouse by 23:30.
