By Leeza Clark

TWO FISHERMEN were rescued from their sinking vessel off the Fife coast on Saturday in what turned out to be a day of drama in the Forth.

As rescue craft sped to answer their Mayday call the crew of the creel boat clung to their sinking craft.

But luckily for them a safety team from nearby Dalgety Bay Sailing Club, who had an event in progress on the river, had intercepted their distress call.

The incident unfolded in front of visitors enjoying a day out sailing to Inchcolm Island on the Maid Of The Forth.

Two men in the 24-foot creel boat, the Rachel Ruth, which got into trouble in Mortimer’s Deep off the coast from Aberdour and Dalgety Bay issued a distress call as the vessel started taking on water.

Fortunately a four-metre craft from Dalgety Sailing Club was nearby and rescued the two men and took them ashore to the club premises.

Steve Miller, the rescue officer with the club, said the team was monitoring two channels when the creel boat sent its Mayday call.

“We intercepted the call and, as we were operating in the Dalgety Bay area, we headed out to them.

“The boat was still afloat but it sunk when we were in attendance—I would estimate it sunk within about two to three minutes of our getting there and we were the first ones to arrive.

“The men were quite concerned and abandoned ship as it start to go down. When we arrived they were clinging to the boat and preparing to jump.

“They jumped into the water and we picked them up and contacted the coastguard,” he added.

He said that one of the two men was obviously in shock, but they were lucky to escape physical injuries.

The crew from Kinghorn RNLI inshore lifeboat arrived and asked for medical help to be called since one of the men was showing signs of hypothermia.

The men were taken back to the sailing club as the lifeboat surveyed the area in which the boat had sunk for debris and any leaking fuel.

Mr Miller said the men seemed to think they had hit a submerged object which caused a slow leak through the hull.

While it was an isolated incident for the sailing club’s rescue team, it went according to plan.

“Being on the water we have a duty to respond to any distress call which is sent out, which we did.”

Unfortunately, it was not the last call out of the day for the volunteers of Scotland’s busiest RNLI inshore lifeboat, who recorded 57 rescue missions last year.

No sooner had the volunteer crew who attended—helmsmen Keith Hay and Paul Wibberly, crewmen Mike Chalmers, Phil Smythe, Neil Chalmers and shore crew Ian McLean—returned than they were called out again.

The second incident was a real race against the clock.

The crew was called into action shortly after 7 pm when a 14 ft motorboat, Doodlebug, sent a Mayday message to the coastguard reporting that it was taking on water off the coast of Musselburgh and needed immediate assistance.

Three people on board—from Musselburgh and Edinburgh—had called 999 and, thanks to the installation of a GPS navigation system, were able to give rescuers their exact location.

With messages coming in that the situation on board had reached a critical stage, the volunteers started their full speed rescue mission across the Forth estuary to the Doodlebug, which was around a quarter of a mile off ash lagoons near Musselburgh.

Volunteer crewman Neil Chalmers said, “Updates during the dash across the Forth were relayed from the coastguard who were in communication with the owner by mobile phone and who reported that the situation on board the speedboat was critical.

“We knew the RNLI lifeboat was in a desperate race against time to save the lives of the three crew.”

It took the Kinghorn team almost 20 minutes at full speed to make the crossing from Kinghorn to Musselburgh and to arrive in time to rescue the crew from the vessel. They took them on board just as the boat sank.