Three lifeboat call-outs in July …

The Arran lifeboat volunteers never know what they may have to deal with. On July 3rd they had a call from a walker at Laggan who had been stung by a bee and had gone into anaphylactic shock. Fortunately, the sufferer was carrying medication for such an event and was well on the way to recovery, but the lifeboat acted as a kindly taxi to take the walker back to Lochranza.

On Wednesday of the following week, 11th July, the lifeboat was called to Holy Isle, where a lady had fallen while walking and broken her wrist. Crew members stabilised her wrist for travel then brought her back to Lamlash to a waiting ambulance.

Sometimes mysteries have to be solved. At 9.pm on Sunday 15th July a rubber dinghy was reported to be drifting off the moorings in Lamlash Bay with two people on board. When volunteers arrived at the station in response to the call-out, a couple who had found their dinghy missing were wondering if the one seen belonged to them. Clyde Coastguard requested the lifeboat crew to launch and bring the drifting dinghy and its occupants ashore. The dinghy was indeed the missing one and the two youths occupying it were brought ashore to the waiting police.

Helmsman Mark Nelson said, ‘It’s all in a day’s work, helping people. It’s what we spend our time training for.’

If you’d like any more information about Arran’s local service, please telephone Geoff Norris, Lifeboat Operations Manager, on 01770 600420 or e-mail Richard_Smith2@rnli.org.uk. For general information, see www.rnli.org.uk.

…and other rescues

Thanks to John Kinsman for these items

On Sunday July 22nd the Helensburgh Inshore RNLI lifeboat went to the assistance of a small boat with six people on board that had become stuck on rocks near Kilcreggan in the Firth of Clyde. The lifeboat crew managed to re-float the small boat but stayed with it while it made its way to the James Watt Dock in Greenock.

At 7.30 pm the following day, Monday July 23rd, the Troon All-weather lifeboat rescued a man from the Firth of Clyde after his boat caught fire and sank beneath the waves. Fortunately, he had sent up a distress flare, but he had been in the water for some time when the lifeboat reached him. He was suffering from smoke inhalation and hypothermia, and was treated by ambulance crews before being  taken to hospital.