The Lifeboat Launch So Unusual Crews Had Never Seen Anything Like It

A Facebook memory shared by RNLI Looe Lifeboat Station this morning has brought back an extraordinary rescue from exactly eight years ago today, when a combination of timing and tide forced one of the most unusual launches the station had ever seen.

On the afternoon of 19th April 2018, volunteers were called out to assist a local crabber experiencing engine problems to the west of Looe Island. Routine enough, on the face of it. But the timing of the shout meant the crew was up against one of the most challenging conditions a lifeboat station can face: a low spring tide.

With the water pulled back further than usual, volunteer tractor driver Paul found himself driving a full 500 metres beyond the Banjo Pier before there was enough depth to launch the station’s Atlantic 85. Crew members at the time said they could not remember an occasion when the tractor had needed to travel so far out before a launch and recovery could take place.

The incident was described as very unusual by those involved, and the memory resurfacing today, on the eighth anniversary of the callout, gave the station’s followers a reminder of just how much the sea dictates the terms, even before a rescue has properly begun.

📷Credit: RNLI Looe Lifeboat Station