TWO PEOPLE were rescued on Lough Derg on Saturday night after a smoking engine forced them to cut the power leaving them drifting on the lake.
The Lough Derg RNLI lifeboat was alerted to the incident at about 7.30pm following a report that a 22-foot motor cruiser had suffered engine failure and was drifting close to rocks on the Urra shore.
The lifeboat arrived at the scene within minutes and found that the two men on board were safe and unharmed and were both wearing life jackets.
The skipper informed the lifeboat crew that he saw “smoke coming from the engine and had no option but to cut the power and call for help”. The vessel was taken under tow to the public harbour at Dromineer.
Meanwhile, on Friday night, the Lough Derg lifeboat was called into action following a report that two people on a jet ski were in difficulty close to the Scilly Islands on the southwestern side of the lake.
As the lifeboat was launching the crew was informed that a lakeboat was also going to the assistance of the persons who were by then reported to be in the water. The lifeboat arrived about 20 minutes later.
On arrival there was no sign of the men or the jet ski. The crew spoke to a fisherman in the only lakeboat in the vicinity and although he had no English, he managed to convey to the lifeboat crew that he had taken the jet ski and the persons to a landing place on the Tipperary shore.
Rescuers searched the Tipperary shoreline indicated by the fisherman, including private harbours, but were unable to locate the men or their jet ski while the Irish Coast Guard was also unable to make contact with the person who had called in the request for help.
After a thorough search there was no sign of the jet ski. It is thought, however, that the pair left the area without waiting for the rescue services to arrive.
Last Thursday, the same lifeboat crew rescued a man in his 70s who spent the night trapped on his cruise boat after it ran aground on rocks on Wednesday afternoon. The man was discovered at about 9.30am on Thursday after spending 16 hours on the vessel.
All three operations were co-ordinated by the Irish Coast Guard centre at Valentia Island in Co Kerry.