A day of tragedy and drama unfolded today (20 Jan) when the volunteers of Crosshaven RNLI Station were tasked to an incident where a small fishing boat with two persons onboard had capsized close to the shoreline, West of Ringabella Bay. The informant was the Skipper of the vessel after he had
managed to swim to shore and run through fields to raise the alarm. His crewman was missing.
A major rescue operation got underway with the Crosshaven RNLI inshore lifeboat, Ballycotton RNLI Lifeboat, the Naval Vessel LE Emer, the Coastguard helicopter Rescue 117, Crosshaven Coastguard unit and many privateb fishing and leisure craft all taking part.
Unfortunately, the missing crewman has not yet been found, Although Crosshaven and Ballycotton lifeboats are planning a two hour low water search between 2300 and 0100. The full search will resume tomorrow (Friday)
at first light.
Shortly after the crews returned to Crosshaven for dinner, the pagers again activated at 1909, this time to another 25' fishing vessel near Roches Point taking in water. Both Crosshaven and Ballycotton Lifeboats launched and placed salvage pumps aboard the casualty and stemmed the ingress of water enough to place the vessel under tow to Cobh, where she was safely berthed.
