Cowes RNLI lifeboat is responding to reports of an overturned boat adrift near Fishbourne this evening (Thursday).
Solent Coastguard requested the launch of the Atlantic-class inshore lifeboat at around 16:40.
Wightlink’s Victoria of Wight raised the alarm during a cross-Solent journey between Fishbourne and Portsmouth.
The volunteer crew of Cowes Lifeboat are currently conducting a search near the mouth of Wootton Creek.
UPDATE – Cowes RNLI has been stood down from the search having failed to locate the boat.
Bembridge Coastguard Rescue Team are now conducting a shoreline search for the 4m vessel.
UPDATE – Coastguard officers have conducted a search between Wightlink’s Fishbourne terminal and Quarr Abbey, but nothing untoward has been found.
The search has been called off.
No persons are thought to have been on the boat when it was sighted.
Why did the ferry not stop and wait for the lifeboat to arrive instead of carrying on its merry way and please don’t say they have a timetable to run to as they cancel lots of ferries a year for technical issues ie lack of staff
Did the wight Link ferry establish if the boat was an inflatable Craft or something else? According to reports I’ve read there are over a hundred illegal migrants crossing the channel a day.
Little has been reported on the mainstream media, so surprise there then…
Bembridge Inshore Lifeboat recovered a dinghy off of Appley this morning – it may have been the same thing? No occupants – looked as if it had just broken its tether.