Busy weekend for air and sea rescue teams

Tuesday 01 September 2020

Channel Island coastguards were called to several incidents this weekend, including a capsized motorboat and a vessel on fire off the coast of Alderney.

At 17:00 on Sunday, a mayday was received after reports of a 50ft motor cruiser whose engine had caught fire.

The call was answered by the Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney and French coastguard teams. Initially, the French coastguard (CROSS Jobourg) took the lead as the vessel was believed to be north of Alderney, in France’s search and rescue territory.

However, communication with the vessel confirmed that it was seven nautical miles south of Alderney, and Guernsey took over.

The Roy Barker vessel arrived at 18:00 and connected a tow line to bring the vessel towards Guernsey. At 18:25, the tow was passed onto the Spirit of Guernsey, who arrived at the harbour at 19:40 to hand the damaged vessel over to marina staff. There were eight passengers aboard and no one was harmed.

Pictured: The Spirit of Guernsey was called to assist a vessel that caught fire off the coast of Alderney on Sunday.

That same morning, the Jersey Coastguard was called to assist a capsized vessel spotted by Condor Rapide. The passenger boat spotted an upturned hull to the west of Les Minquiers islands on its return from St Malo, and contacted the coastguard.

No one was aboard the vessel or nearby, and the Channel Islands Air Search craft was stood down after two hours. It was later established that the vessel had broken free of its moorings in France. An attempt was made to tow it back, but it broke up and sank during the journey.

On the return flight, Jersey Coastguard were also asked to investigate reports of a drifting kayak. This was found very quickly, and during a search of the surrounding waters, a second kayak was found on the rocks south east of Jersey. Both owners were contacted on land, and the aircraft stood down after three hours and 10 minutes of flight.