Following a Request to Launch by the Coast Guard on Wednesday afternoon (21/08/19) at 1pm, Arklow Lifeboat launched to the first shout of the day.
Ger T was launched to reports of a fishing vessel which had lost propulsion and was adrift one mile North East of Arklow Harbour.
In South Westerly winds of Force 4-5 and with moderate worsening sea conditions, the casualty vessel was located and once on scene Arklow Lifeboats volunteers secured a rescue towline and proceeded to tow the fishing vessel with three aboard back into Arklow where all hands came ashore safely.
Our volunteers for this shout were Ned Dillon, Brendan Dillon, Eddie McElheron, Dave Molloy ,Craig O’Reilly, Jimmy Myler & Sinead Myler.
The 2nd shout came on Wednesday evening 21/8/19 at 6.20pm when the pagers were activated following the alarm being raised by a member of the public.
Reports had come in that a person was missing in a Kayak somewhere North of Arklow, the volunteer crew launched Arklow Lifeboat immediately and commenced a search as they proceeded North along the coast, further reports came in that a kayak had been sighted on or near the beach at Ennereillly Strand, North of Arklow.
The lifeboat continued the search north as it headed for the reported position at Ennereilly.
In the mean time some of Arklow RNLI’s Volunteers had commenced a shoreline search to see if the person or persons had managed to get ashore separate from the kayak, a short time later another of our volunteers located the owner of the kayak who had made his way ashore quite safely and was en route back to Ennereilly Strand to pick up his Kayak.
The search was then stood down and the lifeboat returned to station.
Following the rescue, Mark Corcoran- Arklow RNLI Press Officer & Community Safety Officer said
“Thankfully we were able to bring three people safely back to shore and given the worsening conditions and with the casualty vessel adrift near the rocks this could easily have had a much worse ending, our second launch in more challenging conditions followed a report of a missing kayaker, thankfully he had made it back to shore safely and was en-route back to collect his beached kayak when he was located on shore, thanks to the members of the public who made the report and all of our volunteers for their time in very challenging conditions and a special thanks and congratulations to Sinead Myler on completing her first shout today.”
