While out on exercise last Thursday night, Lough Derg RNLI Lifeboat came to the assistance of five people whose boat had suffered engine failure, at the south western end of Lough Derg.
At 8.30pm the lifeboat observed a boat, close to shore at Two Mile Gate, flash a distress signal with a torch. Upon investigation the lifeboat found five people, four adults and one child, on board a 20ft boat that had suffered engine failure.
They had contacted two friends for assistance, but having attempted to tow them, the battery on their jet ski failed.
The lifeboat crew, with helm Eleanor Hooker, Robbie Garland and Owen Cavanagh on board, secured the jet ski and took the boat with her passengers and an RNLI crew member on board, under tow to their mooring at Killaloe.
Once the boat was safely tied alongside, the lifeboat took the two jet skiers plus their vessel upriver and under the bridge at Killaloe to their launching slip, where they could recover their jet ski.
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.