Thames Coastguard requested the lifeboat to launch to assist a 30' yacht with four persons on board which had gone aground at Harty Ferry in the Swale.

The yacht had been laying on a mooring overnight to shelter from the gale, but had broken its mooring line and drifted across the Swale.

In storm force winds gusting to 48 knots the Whitstable Lifeboat faced heavy seas to reach the casualty vessel that was located 30-metres from the shore east of the Harty Ferry slipway on the Isle of Sheppey.

In difficult conditions the four occupants of the yacht were transferred to the lifeboat and landed ashore at Harty into the care of the Sheppey Coastguard.

On returning to Whitstable, conditions were too bad on the beach to recover the lifeboat, so it was left in the harbour until the tide had dropped.

At 0945 the lifeboat made a net recovery back into the carriage.

Click on picture to enlarge