#RNLI - Clifden RNLI was busy at the weekend with two callouts in quick succession in the early hours of Sunday morning (26 July).
The volunteer lifeboat crew was first alerted at midnight to a 29ft yacht reported adrift in Cleggan Bay. In a Force 7-8 easterly wind, the yacht had begun to drag its anchors and drift.
The D-class inshore lifeboat proceeded by road to Cleggan while the all-weather lifeboat Pride and Spirit was launched in Clifden.
After initiating search patterns and letting off a white para flare to illuminate the area, the D-class crew – consisting of Owen Hayes, Alvin Bell, Thomas Davis and Andrew Bell – located the vessel after around 20 minutes and returned it safely to Cleggan Pier.
"Given the challenging conditions of the weather and the dark night, we were glad to have been able to locate the vessel quickly," said Hayes. "We all worked together well to safely and smoothly bring the boat back to harbour."
The second callout was at 6:30am when a vessel was reported to have ran aground on Inishbofin.
Clifden's all-weather boat transferred the local coastguard team from Cleggan to the island to assist the owners of the stricken vessel, which was successfully refloated after a co-operative response to the task at hand.
Later in the day, Wicklow's all-weather lifeboat Annie Blaker followed its Friday callout with a launch request at 2.03pm after a member of the public reported seeing what looked like a yacht in difficulties, about three miles north of Wicklow Harbour.
The lifeboat, under the command of coxswain Nick Keogh, launched immediately and proceeded north. Weather conditions in the area were described as poor, with a rough sea state, south-easterly Force 6 winds and poor visibility in rain.
Contact was established with the yacht in the area, with the skipper saying they had experienced some difficulties setting the mainsail, but they managed to resolve the problem with the sail.
They were continuing passage north and required no further assistance. The lifeboat was stood down and returned to station.
The crew were to hold their annual open day at the station yesterday, but the event was cancelled due to the bad weather.