A yacht was rescued by a Loch Ness RNLI boat yesterday after it was blown ashore at Fort Augustus.
The rescue was one of a series of incidents on the water, which included the Ullapool to Stornoway ferry getting involved in a search off Loch Broom.
A crew of six people on holiday from Hertfordshire were caught out by blowy conditions on Loch Ness when they lowered the sails of their 29ft cruising yacht, Merlin’s Magic, to enter the Caledonian Canal.
The engine would not start and the yacht veered onto gravel to the north of the canal entrance.
Loch Ness lifeboat was called out at 1.36pm to pull the boat out of trouble with volunteer Joy Cameron going on board to assist with raising the sails to get the boat moving again.
Three lifeboat volunteers and three local members of HM Coastguard were at the scene.
Lifeboat helmsman Neil Stebbings said: “It is often the changing weather that catches people out because typically it is a south-west prevailing wind – today we have a north easterly wind blowing inshore.”
A spokesman for the lifeboat added that it was fortunate that problems did not occur further up the loch where more rocky embankments can cause damage to a boat and put the crew in serious danger.
He added that the wind speed was Force 6 blowing between 28mph and 35mph.
The crew said they were “relieved” after being helped out of trouble.
The Caledonian MacBrayne ferry was diverted yesterday to help search for two canoeists in difficulty in a Highland sea loch.
The ferry Isle of Lewis ferry was heading to Stornoway when it was alerted to a distress call from two canoeists in trouble in Little Loch Broom.
The two men called Stornoway Coastguard after the being blown away from the shore as they rounded Cailleach Head, near Scoraig at about 10.20am and their canoe was taking on water.
Coastguard teams from Ullapool and Lochinver and the Lochinver lifeboat were also called out along with the Stornoway Coastguard helicopter.
The canoeists reached shore at Mellon Udrigle on the opposite side of Gruinard Bay, and called the Coastguard to say they were safe.
A Stornoway Coastguard spokesman said: “The helicopter and paramedics were sent to check them over and they were both fine.”
CalMac said the ferry was delayed by about 35 minutes. Oban lifeboat assisted the 32ft yacht Mystic, with two on board, after it suffered engine trouble in the Sound of Mull.
In a stiff easterly breeze, the lifeboat transferred a crew member to the yacht to assist in rigging a tow. The Mystic arrived in Oban under tow at 2:32pm.
Meanwhile a woman in her 60s was airlifted from the Singing Sands beach at Ardnamurchan after hitting her head in a fall.