They were able to successfully tow the craft back to Looe harbour.
Whilst dealing with an incident on the coast path between Talland and Polperro, on Sunday, July 23, Looe Coastguard Rescue team members were alerted to a blue boat drifting half a mile off Polperro. The team informed Falmouth MRCC that the tender looked to be unoccupied, so Falmouth MRCC tasked RNLI volunteer crew to investigate.
Shortly after pagers had sounded at 1.05 pm the charity’s Atlantic 85 Sheila and Dennis Tongue II launched to investigate.
Arriving on scene the crew found a 12 foot blue tender drifting, unoccupied, in the SW wind.
A spokesperson said: “There were no obvious signs of anyone being on board the tender and the outboard motor was cold and tilted out of the water, indicating it had not been used recently.
“Our crew then found a Fowey Harbour Commissioners sticker of the tender and after a few phone calls were able to ascertain the tender had broken free from its moorings on Fowey River and drifted, unoccupied, along the coast towards Polperro in the SW winds.
“With confirmation that nobody was in distress, our helm decided the best course of action would be to tow the tender back to the nearest port. With the tide falling, our crew considered getting into Polperro harbour could be difficult so they decided to tow the tender into Looe harbour.
“Making steady progress towing the tender back to Looe, our crew moored it alongside East Looe quayside to await collection by its owner later in the afternoon.”
The volunteer helm, Clive Palfrey added: “The presence of the Fowey harbour sticker helped us to confirm quickly the tender had broken from its moorings and no one was in difficulties.”
“This shows the importance of all boats, canoes, kayaks and SUPs being marked with owner contact details which in this instance prevented a full scale search just in case someone was in distress.”
The Atlantic 85 returned to the lifeboat station where it was refuelled and washed down.
In a phone call to Falmouth MRCC advising them they were ready for their next service; they asked if a casualty care crew member could assist a female who had fallen on the sea defences along East Looe beach.
A few of the crew members made their way over on foot to provide casualty care until the female was handed over into the care of Looe Coastguard Rescue team and Ambulance paramedics.