There was an unexpected if fishy bonus for the crew of Kinghorn lifeboat when they were called into action to come to the aid of a fishing boat with engine problems in the Firth of Forth early yesterday morning.
As reward, the boat’s grateful skipper rewarded the volunteers by presenting them with a large quantity of freshly-caught prawns!
The crew was alerted by the coastguard at 5.30am after reports that a fishing boat with one person on board had suffered engine failure about half a mile off Port Seton.
Lifeboat helmsman Scott McIlravie explained, “We located the 10-metre fishing vessel Dreamfinder and decided to take her into Port Seton, but knew with the falling tide that we would have to be quick, as there soon wouldn’t have been enough draft for the boat to get into the harbour.
“We had to struggle through some rolling waves near the harbour entrance which made things quite tricky, but my crew were great and we managed to put her alongside the outer harbour area.
“I reckon had we been delayed another 15 minutes, then we would have been unable to get her in.”
Mr McIlravie added, “The captain, a local man, was over the moon with the assistance we had provided — so much so that, despite our protests, he lavished on us a generous helping of fresh prawns for our efforts!
“We managed to get home by 7.10am, in time to start our work and I’ll be thinking of recipes for prawns throughout the day.”
With Mr McIlravie on the rescue were Neil Chalmers and Ian Tulloch, with Judith Frame on the tractor.
The rescue was the second time the new Kinghorn lifeboat, which won’t be officially named until Saturday, and Ian were called into action in the space of two days.
About 3.30pm on Sunday, along with Leanne Fisher, Luke Williams, with Brian Crow and Mike Chalmers on shore, the 26-year old came to the aid of man in trouble on a broken-down jet ski in the water just off Burntisland and they towed him to the town’s slipway.