Yacht Black Sheep - Falmouth coordinate rescue from satellite alert - again!

As BBC Scotland reports winds over 100mph across region.........

Last 24 hours from weather buoy 6406 off Scotland showing waves reaching nearly 20 feet - no place for a 26' yacht!

BBC video footage shot from the SAR 102 helicopter which was subsequently taken out of service to have volcanic ash removed.

In the early ours of the morning FGC picked up a satellite transmission from an EPIRB that did not give its position. The staff at Falmouth trawled their records and found that the boat was a 26' English yacht (ironically named, Black Sheep - given the ash cloud descending over Scotland at the moment) on a four month voyage to the Outer Hebrides. The vessel was located between the Shetland and Faroes Island in atrocious weather conditions and a SAR helicopter from Kinloss dispatched to the scene. The solo skipper of the boat was having comms problems in the severe weather according to the the Kirkwall lifeboat which was dispatched to escort the boat to safety in Westray, Orkney Islands .

This article appeared in support of Falmouth's work in yesterday's Guardian.