Four men who took an inflatable hot tub out into the open sea at midnight near Dunnet Bay were miraculously found safe and well.
Crew members of Thurso Lifeboat found the hot tub after reports of three or four men taking the inflatable down onto the beach and into the sea.
Reports of a large “unknown floating object” (UFO) were made to Caithness police and coastguard at 12.10am.
The RNLI Thurso lifeboat raced to the rescue of the “sailors”.
The makeshift ocean-bound hot tub, made watertight with black sticky tape, was recovered in the early hours of Saturday morning.
But when the crew arrived the hot tub was empty.
Hot tub near Dunnet Bay was empty when lifeboat arrived
Fearing the worst, the RNLI began a search before it was discovered that while the hot tubbers had been afloat in the hot tub, they decided to swim back to shore.
A spokeswoman for the RNLI said: “We launched at 12.10am on Saturday June 24 in response to the report of a large unknown object floating in Dunnet Bay.
“The lifeboat was requested as support to local coastguard teams and Police Scotland.
“It was established that three or four local men had been seen carrying what looked like an inflatable hot tub to the beach.
“The lifeboat arrived on scene at 12.25am and conducted a search. Initially, they were unable to spot the object and nothing was showing on radar.”
Eventually a crew member spotted the tub using thermal binoculars. It was half a mile from shore, floating upright, but it was empty.
The spokesman continued: “On returning to Scrabster the crew were informed that some men were seen in the tub while it was in the water and these men had so far not been traced.”
Men traced safe and well
Shortly after that the crew were informed that the men had been traced safe and well.
The spokesman added: “This incident gives the opportunity to remind the public that if they are planning to take to the water, do it in daylight, make sure that they inform someone of their plans, wear personal floating devices, make sure that the floating device is suitable and always make sure you have a way to call for help.”
Coxswain Andy Pearson said this incident eventually had a positive outcome but there were many things that could have led to a completely different outcome.
The hot tub which had black tape repairs on its base was taken to the RNLI station at Scrabster to see if the owner can be traced.