A routine training exercise turned into a real rescue for the crew of a Moray lifeboat yesterday.
Buckie RNLI members were completing scheduled training when they received a call for help from a trawler which had developed steering problems a mile north of the harbour.
The skipper of the 82ft Artemis Avoch raised the alarm shortly after noon amid fears the vessel was in danger of drifting out of control.
The lifeboat crew put a line on board the Inverness-registered fishing boat and towed it to Buckie harbour.
It arrived in port around 1pm.
A spokesman for RNLI said: “A shout such as this, to help a fishing boat in distress by towing it back to shore, is fairly routine for our volunteers.
“That is what our members train to do, and thankfully as they were actually training at the time and only a mile away, the Buckie lifeboat was able to reach the ship quite quickly.
“The waters were fairly calm, which helped with the operation.”
The Artemis Avoch was built in 1995 by Macduff Shipyards.
Moray lifeboat rescues struggling trawler on training mission
