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A fisherman has been rescued by ferry after his creel boat sank off Skye this morning.

Coastguards received an emergency alert that the eight-metre-long boat, the MFV Inshallah, was going down.

The Inshallah is owned in Plockton but often works out of Skye.

The sole crewman abandoned the flooding boat after releasing its liferaft and scrambing onboard.

The navigating officer on the bridge of the South Uist ferry, MV Lord of the Isles, immediately altered course on hearing the mayday alert transmitted on a VHF maritime emergency channel shortly after 8.50am.

The ship - which was two hours out of Lochboisdale - swung hard to port and steered at full speed to the scene, some three miles off Loch Brittle.

Mallaig RNLI lifeboat also responded but the Cal Mac ship was closest to the incident.

Spotting the liferaft bobbing on the sea, the ferry crew launched a fast rescue boat and sped to the man’s rescue.

They transferred him onto the rescue craft and took him onboard the Lord of the Isles.

The ferry then resumed its voyage to Mallaig where the casualty went ashore.

Mallaig lifeboat was monitoring the scene in case of fuel pollution from the sunken creel boat.

Stornoway coastguard co-ordinated the rescue operation.

A coastguard spokesman said: “We received a radio call from the vessel saying they were sinking.

“The lone crew member took to the liferaft and was picked up the the MV Lord of the Isles’ fast rescue craft.

The casualty was “recovered safe and well,” said coastguards.

A CalMac spokesman said: “The MV Lord of the Isles was involved in assisting a fishing vessel which was in trouble earlier today and recovered a crewman from a liferaft before taking him to Mallaig.

"Our crews are fully trained to deal with incidents of this kind and were pleased to be able to help.”

 

MV Lord of the Isles