The volunteer RNLI crew of the St Ives all-weather lifeboat launched at 6.45pm last night (Monday 8 February) into difficult conditions. The tide had started to flood and a heavy wash was running off the back of the pier. Tommy Cocking, RNLI Coxswain at St Ives, describes the weather as ‘quite poor:
‘The conditions as we launched were challenging. The seas were actually breaking over the top of the tractor, not nice for the volunteer driver whose job it is to get the lifeboat out to the sea safely. Then we had to head out into a north easterly wind of force six to seven and a horrid, lumpy sea.’
The St Ives lifeboat crew found the Lola K 16 nautical miles north north west of St Ives with her wheelhouse windows smashed in. Fortunately the crew member on watch on the fishing boat had opened the wheelhouse door to have a smoke and had his back to the windows when the sea hit. It meant the water was able to flood out onto the deck and the man wasn’t facing the glass when it smashed in.
Tommy Cocking and his volunteer crew escorted the Lola K down the coast before handing her over to the care of the Penlee all-weather lifeboat crew. They launched at 23.20pm and took over from St Ives at twenty past midnight this morning. Patrick ‘Patch’ Harvey is Coxswain:
‘It was a horrible night, with easterly winds gusting up to 25 knots. Once past the Runnelstone Buoy we had to slow down to 4 knots as the Lola K was taking in water through the smashed windows. It meant we didn’t get back to Newlyn until 3am.’
