Angle RNLI had two shouts and nine hours at sea that started on Wednesday evening, January 15 when the crew were at station preparing to launch on exercise.

At 5.30pm, the crew was paged to assist a 10m pleasure vessel that had suffered electrical failure off the VPOT oil terminal on the Milford Haven waterway. They reached the casualty vessel quickly. Following a quick assessment, the vessel was soon underway with tow towards Neyland Marina. Once the vessel was safely alongside at pontoon within the marina, the lifeboat was stood down and its crew returned to the usual Wednesday night exercise.

Then at 9.15pm, Angle All-Weather Lifeboat was requested to launch to assist a 25m commercial landing craft with eight people onboard that was taking water in St Brides Bay. The vessel was under tow from a tug following a grounding and salvage operation.

St David’s All-Weather Lifeboat were on scene, and Little Haven Inshore Lifeboat had also attended during the evening.

Angle Lifeboat made best speed to the area and arrived on scene 30 minutes later and soon had their salvage pump transferred onto the casualty vessel to help keep water ingress at bay.

Both lifeboats began to escort the tow but while west of Skomer Island, in light of the vessel threatening to sink, a plan was made to change course to Broad Haven Beach.

The lifeboats then spent the next few hours escorting the tow and providing safety cover. Upon arrival off Broad Haven, the tide wasn’t suitable for beaching the vessel, so the lifeboats stood by whilst pumping efforts continued.

At 3.15am, with the situation now improving, St David’s Lifeboat returned fo station. Not long afterwards, at 4am, Angle Lifeboat was stood down after the master confirmed he was content with the vessel’s condition.