SD RAASAY

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Tender rescued divers who lost their dive boat

A group of nine scuba divers had to be picked up by the 'SD Raasay' in Loch Alsh after their new dive-boat broke down on its first day in action on Nov 21, 2020. The RNLI boat 'Spirit of Fred Olsen' was called out just before midday on to retrieve the divers after their dive boat had broken down. The first to surface following their dive on the 20m-deep WW2 minelayer HMS 'Port Napier' had found that their boat had drifted away from the dive area and was unable to retrieve them. The cox’n had called for assistance at 11.55 a.m. after the vessel suffered engine failure. It took the lifeboat only two minutes to reach the scene. Three divers had already surfaced and were trying to board the 'SD Raasay', but were having difficulty because of its large size, The lifeboat picked them up and helped them to board the tender before going to the assistance of another diver who had just ascended. The fishing vessel 'Helen Bruce' picked up another three divers and transferred them onto the SD Raasay while the lifeboat waited to pick up the last two divers when they surfaced. The tender carried the group back to Kyle, while the lifeboat went to take the disabled dive-boat under tow and return it to Kyleakin on the Skye side of the loch. The whole operation took 110 minutes. Report with photos: https://rnli.org/news-and-media/2020/november/21/kyle-rnli-called-to-assist-divers-in-the-water-after-their-boat-becomes-disabled