Busy 24 hours for Achill RNLI

Anton McNulty

THE Achill RNLI and Coast Guard teams were both tasked to take part in the rescue of a small cabin boat which encountered engine failure off Dooega head on Thursday evening.
The distressed boat which was crewed by four foreign nationals was a mile and a half west of Dooega Head when it encountered engine failure and the alarm was raised at 5.15pm.
Both the local lifeboat and coast guard teams were tasked to locate the small vessel which was quickly located adrift off Dooega Head. The lifeboat towed the boat towards Purteen Harbour before it along with the four crew members was brought safely ashore by Coast Guard’s D-class boat.
The conditions were excellent at the time and helped with the smoothness of the recovery. Nobody was injured in the rescue.
The rescue was one of three call outs which the Achill RNLI received in a 24-hour period. The first call-out was on Wednesday, May 11 at around 10.30pm when the lifeboat was tasked by the Coast Guard to support the evacuation of an elderly patient from Inishturk island, who was transferred to hospital by the Coast Guard helicopter.
Following the rescue of the small boat on Thurday afternooon, a local doctor requested the assistance of the Achill lifeboat to take a patient from Clare Island into Cloughmore in Achill, where the patient was transferred by a waiting ambulance to hospital.
Commenting on the call-outs, Achill lifeboat Coxwain, Dave Curtis, saidL “The responses all went to plan and the rescue of the cabin boat in particular, was a textbook case of good training paying off.”