Over 1,000 people attended a gala at Mallaig harbour on Saturday to help raise funds for two lifeline local charities.
Money accumulated through local donations and a large raffle will be split between the Fisherman’s Mission, which provides support to active and retired fisherman and their families, and the RNLI Mallaig lifeboat service.
It was the first time the two charities had staged their annual galas as a joint event.
One of the event highlights was the boat race, where six skippers steered their vessels on a route set by the Mallaig lifeboat crew.
But this was dramatically interrupted by a lifeboat call out.
A member of the public had alerted Stornoway Coastguard at 2.10pm to an 85-year-old woman who was struggling to make her way out to her yacht in a dinghy from the shore at Isleornsay, in the south of Skye.
But, by the time the crew had arrived, she had made it back to her vessel safely.
Meanwhile, local fisherman Allan Cameron won the gala boat race by finishing in a time closest to what he had estimated.
Karen Calder, area manager for the Fisherman’s Mission, estimated that “at least a thousand” people had turned out for the event, which preceded an evening ceilidh.
She added: “It was a great day. There were a lot of families there and it was good to see a lot of families coming back to the area especially for this weekend.
“The lifeboat got a call-out near the beginning of the race, but they were away and back again in a couple of hours”.
During the event, there was also a procession, involving a pair of Jacobites pulling a cart which carried the gala queen and princess to the village pier.
The boat race also had prizes for best kept boat of the year, which was won by Robert Summers in his vessel Rebecca Janeen, and for the best decorated boat on the day, won by Michael Morrison.
The total amount of money raised is yet to be finalised, but Mrs Calder added: “The money raised will make a huge difference to these lifeline charities, as it’s getting harder each year to keep the money coming”.
