A lifeboat crew faced 45mph winds and 20ft swell as they rescued a fishing vessel.
The boat put out a mayday when it started taking on water 15 miles west of Kinlochbervie in the north-west Highlands at around 1.20pm on Sunday.
Lochinver RNLI lifeboat and the Stornoway Coastguard helicopter went to help the fishing boat, which had three people on board.
READ MORE: Memorial held for 50th anniversary of lifeboat disaster
The helicopter transferred a lifeboat pump on to the vessel then returned to base to pick up a second pump.
The lifeboat crew posted pictures of the rescue operation on the RNLI Lochinver Facebook page.
Describing the rescue, a post on the page said: “The weather was very poor in The Minch with south west winds at 45 miles per hour and a six meter swell, conditions were a little challenging.
“The Stornoway search and rescue helicopter was also in attendance.
“The lifeboat arrived at the fishing vessel an hour after launching and it was decided the safest option would be for the helicopter to transfer the lifeboat’s salvage pump to the fishing vessel.
“Once the crew got the pump up and running they were successfully able to remove the water from the bilges and continued on their way to Stornoway with the lifeboat standing by in attendance astern in case of need.”
The lifeboat escorted the fishing vessel back towards Stornoway and the Stornoway RNLI lifeboat then came out to take over, allowing the Lochinver team to return to base.
A Coastguard spokesman said: “HM Coastguard co-ordinated a search and rescue response after a fishing vessel with three people on board reported it was taking on water in the Minch, in north-west Scotland, on Sunday.
“A mayday came in just after 1.20pm from the vessel, which was 15 miles west of Kinlochbervie. Lochinver.
READ MORE: Scots lifeboat mothballed because of "lack of mutual trust" amongst volunteers
“RNLI lifeboat attended and the HM Coastguard helicopter from Stornoway transferred a lifeboat pump to the vessel, and then returned back to base to pick-up a second pump.
“A cargo vessel and the Coastguard’s Emergency Towing Vessel also attended the scene and assisted.
“The vessel was taken to Stornoway harbour, where Stornoway Coastguard Rescue Team monitored the situation and pump.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here