On Saturday, 29 April Donaghadee RNLI lifeboat volunteers were paged after a member of the public reported seeing a small fishing boat in difficulty off the coast at Millisle.
At 6.18 pm on Saturday evening, the crew were asked by HM Coastguard to launch the RNLI Trent class relief lifeboat Macquarie to go to the assistance of a 16ft red and white boat that had been reported as being in difficulty by a member of the public who had dialled 999. They reported that the boat appeared to have lost power and the person in the boat was trying to paddle ashore with a piece of wood.
In a light south westerly wind and a calm sea state the lifeboat made full speed despite the misty visibility and were on scene at 6.42 pm. They discovered the lone skipper had run aground on rocks just on the Donaghadee side of Millisle lagoon, and it was decided that the only way of assisting him was to launch the lifeboats daughter boat. With crew members Ross Bennett and Nicola Butler onboard, they were able to approach with caution and once alongside they established that the gentleman was not in any distress and that he had lost power to his vessel and drifted onto the rocks. They attached a tow rope and proceeded to tow the boat and skipper to Millisle slipway, where he was handed over to the Coastguard, where safety advice would have been given.
The lifeboat then proceeded to return to Donaghadee Harbour at full speed to be back on station and made ready for their next call out.
