By Isle of Wight Observer
A false alarm is not unusual for the Cowes RNLI lifeboat crew to discover after
launching – but two in one outing this morning was a new experience.
The first alert came from a vessel near Osborne Bay, west of Norris Buoy. After
launching at 9.30 am the lifeboat found that an automatic radio alarm had emanated
from a RIB, without the knowledge of its crew. With the radio now switched off, the
lifeboat escorted the RIB across the shipping lane so that it could continue on to
Hamble.
While this escorting was underway another automatic radio alarm came from a
vessel near Hillhead. The culprit this time was found to be a vessel involved in a
cable-laying operation, and again it was found the activation was down to a
malfunction.
The lifeboat returned to the station at 10.05 am.
