HEADWAY UL3

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Fishing vessel towed to Pittenweem

The Dunbar’s volunteer lifeboat crew joined RNLI colleagues from Anstruther in assisting athe 'Headway - UL 3' which was stranded without power in the early morning of Feb 9, 2020. Initially tasked at 2.25 a.m. to help tow the vessel into Pittenweem harbour in Fife, both crews had to wait for the tide to turn and amid worsening conditions due to Storm Ciara finally moored the boat at nearby Methil over eight hours later. The vessel had lost its steering after setting sail from Eyemouth for a night’s fishing at midnight. When the crew shut down power to try and rectify the problem they found their engine had also failed. After making several attempts to restart their vessel the crew asked UK Coastguard for help. Anstruther volunteers launched their boat, located the vessel north east of the Isle of May and at 1.30 .a.m began towing the fishing boat to Pittenweem harbour. They requested Dunbar provide assistance to act as a break when it came to manoeuvring the vessel into the harbour. By 2.50 a.m. Dunbar’s all weather boat launched and met up with the Anstruther boat north west of the Isle of May a short while later. In an attempt to reach Pittenweem before the tide turned, Dunbar’s larger ALB took over the tow but by 4 a.m. it was clear, with an ebbing tide, that it would not be possible to safely enter the harbour. The decision was therefore taken to take the fishing boat to Methil, where the tide would be favourable at around 11 a.m. In worsening conditions, with three metre waves and high winds with gusts of up to 60mph, the two crews safely moored the boat in Methil harbour shortly after 11 a.m. Both crews were then stood down and by 2 p.m. Dunbar’s ALB had returned to Torness where it was once again ready for service. Report with photos and video: https://rnli.org/news-and-media/2020/february/09/dunbar-and-anstruther-lifeboats-team-up-for-fishing-boat-rescue