A north lifeboat was called to rescue a stranded marine life research boat after it lost power.
The Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust’s research boat RV Silurian got into difficulty in the Ratagan area of Loch Duich with three crew on board who were unable to get the engine started.
The Kyle lifeboat Spirit of Fred Olsen was launched just before 5pm on Saturday and found the 54ft vessel close to grounding when they arrived at 5.10pm.
The lifeboat put a crew member aboard the research vessel to assess the situation before establishing a tow and moving the Silurian back into deeper water.
Once in a safe location the vessel was inspected and the engine was started after a temporary repair.
The Silurian was then escorted back to the pontoons at Kyle for a full repair to be made.
The lifeboat was returned to station at 7:15pm and was refuelled and made ready for service.
A spokesman for the lifeboat crew said: ‘Luckily one of our volunteers who responded to the pager and was on the crew for this call-out was the lifeboat mechanic and he was able to make a temporary repair to the vessels engine.
“The location and size of the vessel along with the changeable, squally weather conditions closer to Kyle meant that it would have been a tricky tow back if the engines could not have been started.”