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Displaying items by tag: Portbraddon

#Rescue - Coastguard teams from Ballycastle and Coleraine were joined by Portrush RNLI in the rescue of a father and son who were cut off by the tide while fishing on the North Antrim coast at the weekend.

As the Belfast Telegraph reports, the two found themselves surrounded by the incoming tide while fishing on rocks at Portbraddon on Saturday evening (20 August).

"The tide can rise six or seven feet at Portbraddon, so if you don't know the area it is possible to get caught out quickly without realising it," said Belfast Coastguard officer Dawn Petrie, who added that rescuers used a specialised kayak to retrieve the father and son from the rocks.

The happy ending in this incident came amid a weekend of tragedy around the UK coast, as three men, two women and a child died in separate incidents in severe weather conditions. The Belfast Telegraph has more on the story HERE.

Published in Rescue

About Commander Bill King, Solo Circumnavigator

William Donald Aelian King was the last surviving submarine commander in the Second World War - in charge of the British Navy's T-class Telemachus that sank a Japanese sub in the Strait of Malacca, between Malaysia and Sumatra, in 1944.

Decorated many times for his service by the end of the war, King became a trailblazing solo sailor.

At the age of 58, he was the oldest participant in The Sunday Times Golden Globe Race sailing Galway Blazer II, a junk-rigged schooner he designed himself.

After a number of abortive attempts, including an incident with "a large sea creature", he finally completed his solo circumnavigation of the globe in 1973.

Beyond his aquatic escapades, King settled with his wife Anita (who died in 1984, aged 70) at Oranmore Castle outside Galway after the war, where he later developed a pioneering organic farm and garden to help tackle his wife's asthma.

The round-the-world sailor and Galway native Bill King died on Friday, 21 September, 2012, aged 102.