My brother and I left Rosehearty yesterday morning at 7.30am to catch the tide. Forecast was for the sun to burn off the morning sea haar, but for the wind to pick up in the afternoon. A decent day was guaranteed.
I'd fitted a new stainless steel propeller the day before, engines were checked, fuelled and ready to go. I'd also programmed the GPS co-ordinates of the Fram which was torpedoed during the war. It lies in two separate locations and offers decent locations to fish near. More details here:
Fram
As it happened, all we just got a couple of dab with peeler crab and squid for bait. Wanting to stretch our legs we stopped in Gardenstown for a brew. Weather was absolutely glorious.
After lunch we headed out around the rock reef at the entrance to Gardenstown into Gamrie Bay, NW towards the cliffs at More Head to try some more fishing. The sea was calm and we were the only boat out, apart from a yacht we'd sighted heading west along the firth and a oil supply vessel which we'd passed earlier lying 2 miles off the coast of Pennan.
The VHF radio had been remarkably quiet. Not unusual for a Sunday I thought. All of a sudden, Aberdeen Coastguard broadcast an 'All Stations, All Stations, All Stations Pan Pan' on CH16 and a report of a blue speedboat drifting near Gamrie Bay.
Absolute pandemonium. My brother had a line over the side so I told him to haul it up and I fired the engine up, then called the coastguard that we were in the same location and could assist. I identified ourselves, boat name, call sign, and boat description and said we were fishing but weren't aware of any other boats in the area.
By this time my brother had hauled in his line and were underway heading back into the middle of the bay. Aberdeen Coastguard then announced over the radio that Fraserburgh lifeboat had launched and was 5 miles away heading to the scene. No sooner had that been announced, then Coastguard came back on CH16 to say the member of the public that had called in had said the boat in question was now underway and moving. Then it dawned, it was bl**dy us! Oh FFS!
I radioed the Coastguard back on CH16 to advise them that as we were the only boat in Gamrie Bay and it was probably a false alarm, that we were drifting with the tide, in no danger and had been fishing.
By this point I knew the RNLI would turn up, plus I wasn't going to hang about and trigger any more calls, so decided to head back to Rosehearty. By this point the wind had picked up and we were battling an offshore wind and chop.
In the distance I could see what had to be the lifeboat at full throttle with its distinctive wake. We stopped engine and waited for it to come alongside. Our 4.8m boat felt particularly small next to the Solent Class lifeboat. I shouted across it was probably a false alarm, that we'd been fishing and I had called the Coastguard on CH16. The Fraserburgh lifeboat then headed off to Gamrie Bay to check for themselves.
A few minutes later the Coastguard put out an 'All Stations Pan Pan... Cancelled' message.
Glad to get back to Rosehearty. First time that's ever happened to us, but I suppose it's easy mistake for a member of the public to assume we might have had engine trouble.
Great to see the RNLI crew. Just hopefully not up close again!
RNLI update and pictures here:
https://www.facebook.com/RNLIFraserb...YZUVmpps_0ZbRM
Sula
BLACK PIG
Piglet
breezy
spy-sea-one
