Busy week for RNLI lifeboat crews

The Portrush Lifeboat has had a busy start to the summer.

Both Portrush All-weather Boat and Inshore boat had two callouts each within one week, as holidaymakers took advantage of the beaches and sea to enjoy one of the hottest weeks of the year. This brings the July total for the volunteer Lifeboat crews in Portrush to six callouts so far.

On Monday, July 21, the all-weather lifeboat ‘The William Gordon Burr’ was deployed to a motor cruiser at Lough Foyle who had run foul of a chain of lobster pots. The crew deployed the Y boat off the ALB to try to free the ropes from the propeller.

The mission was successfully accomplished and the cruiser sailed off to Greencastle to get checked out. Next out was the Inshore Lifeboat ‘David Roulston (Civil Service No 52) who had two shouts on Wednesday, the first one at 11am to a small boat who got into difficulty at Dunluce Castle.

Luckily, for the boat, a local fisherman arrived on scene at the same time as the ILB and towed the boat to Portballintrae. The next shout was at 9pm, and again another local boat assisted with the small boat who had got into difficulty.

On Thursday morning at 5am, the crew of the All weather Lifeboat were paged once again. This time it was to Ballycastle to assist with the search of a young person who was reported missing. The Coastguard helicopter was deployed and they soon located the young female who was successfully airlifted to hospital.

Judy Nelson, Volunteer Lifeboat press Officer for Portrush Station commented: “So far this has been one of our busiest seasons as we have experienced an unprecedented good summer so our volunteer crew have been kept busy. We love to see people coming to Portrush to take advantage of everything the North Coast has to offer, but would ask people to exercise caution when on the beach.

“The RNLI Lifeguards are on patrol on all the beaches and are delighted to offer advice to visitors about safe bathing. The RNLI website rnli.org.co.uk will also give all the advice you need, whether it is about swimming, kayaking, surfing, or boating.”