Despite the weekend being earmarked for Oban lifeboat’s annual open day, the crew were not allowed any respite after being called out three times over the course of the weekend.
Despite the untimely interruptions, the crew and merry band of volunteers managed to raise £3,281 on Saturday afternoon to help fund the valuable lifesaving work they carry out on an annual basis.
On Friday evening the crew were tasked to provide assistance in transferring an employee at the Glensanda Quarry into the town, before handing them over into the care of a waiting ambulance. The casualty was subsequently transferred on to the Oban, Lorn and the Isles Hospital for further treatment.
The next morning the crew were back at the station to begin preparations for their annual fundraiser, which went off without a hitch alongside the Oban coast rescue team, the local fire crew and Oban High School pipe band.
Following the conclusion of the day’s fun, the crew spent much of their time getting the station and more importantly the Mora Edith MacDonald lifeboat up to standard for her next call, which would come just a few hours later.
At 6.30pm on Saturday evening, the lifeboat was launched to assist a yacht that was experiencing engine failure to the west of Kerrera. A tow line was secured between the lifeboat and yacht before both vessels proceeded towards Oban Marina, arriving before 8pm.
Despite only arriving back on Saturday evening, the Oban crew were again launched in the small hours of Sunday, paged at 1.50am to reports of a missing person near Fort William.
The lifeboat launched 10 minutes later and headed for the Corran Narrows to commence a search of the area, before advancing to the Corpach area and into Loch Eil.
The lifeboat was stood down at 7.10am on Sunday morning and steamed back to Oban after nothing was found.
