The volunteer crew of the Port Avery lifeboat were called out three times between ten on Sunday night and five on Monday morning, the busiest night the station has had since 2019.

The first call was to a yacht with a fouled propeller drifting towards the rocks off Gull Point. The crew towed it into the harbour. The second, just after one, was a false alarm: a light on the cliffs that turned out to be a man looking for his dog. The third was to a fishing boat taking on water three miles out, whose two crew were bailing with a bucket when the lifeboat reached them.

"We pumped her out and walked her home," said the helm, Jess Tregarthen, who in the daytime works at the building society on Exchange Square. She went to work on Monday at nine.

We pumped her out and walked her home.

The station's crew of twenty-four are all volunteers. It is recruiting, particularly people who live or work within five minutes of the harbour. The open evening is on Thursday at seven.