Stornoway coastguard successfully rescued three people from a boat off Skye after it ran aground in a “communication blackspot”.
Teams received a call from the crew aboard a 28ft motorboat after it hit rocks off the coast of Skye at around 12.30pm, today.
Burra lifeboat raced to its aid, but teams back at base had to use “detective work” to work out exactly where the boat was.
They only picked up the first half of the crew’s call for help so had to work hard to bring them to safety.
A spokesman from Stornoway coastguard said: “Where the boat went ashore was a really remote spot.
“There was a bit of detective work involved, because where they were situated was in a really poor blackspot for communication.”
‘All’s well that ends well’
When the call first came in the coastguard put out a request for assistance, which was responded to by a number of boats in the area, including the Hebridean Princess cruise ship.
This helped teams locate the boat as soon as possible.
The coastguard spokesman explained that most boats have a handheld radio in the life raft, but this one didn’t so the crew couldn’t use it to call for help.
“We had to do a bit of work to find out where they were,” he said.
“But we managed to track them down and all’s well that ends well.”
Three people were rescued from the boat and taken to Dunvegan, but the vessel itself is thought to be “quite badly damaged”.
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