White flares used in night search for Scottish rowing boat

18/03/2019

Nine white flares have been used in a nighttime search and rescue of a missing rowing boat in Scotland.

One day in early March, Police Scotland requested assistance to trace a small rowing boat seen on Thurso river with four people on board. It was last seen heading towards the sea.
Thurso RNLI volunteer crew were called out and the Severn class lifeboat The Taylors launched.
The Taylors arrived at the mouth of Thurso river and launched the RNLI inflatable Y boat with two crew members. Crew searched the river area and found an oar in the water.
The Taylors checked the Thurso Bay area and the on-board radar picked up a small unoccupied rowing boat, around nine-foot long, with a lifebuoy in the bottom.
The search was then intensified with local coastguard and police searching the shoreline. Nine white flares were used to assist with the search.
Thurso RNLI Coxswain Dougie Munro says, “When the radar indicated something and it turned out to be an empty boat, we then realised that we needed to up the game as the occupants could be in the water, so we put up the flares to help with the search.”
Newly-appointed Thurso Lifeboat Operations Manager, Scott Youngson, was in the Thurso harbour area to liaise with other services and update RNLI crews.
Police Scotland later informed RNLI that all four persons had been found safe and well in the Thurso area and that two of them had been in the water at some stage. The Taylors was stood down and returned.
The photo shows the boat recovered from Thurso Bay by RNLI Lifeboat The Taylors. It is credit RNLI/Karen Munro.