Caister lifeboat rescues nine children and five adults

A lifeboat has rescued nine children and five adults on a pleasure cruise after their boat almost ran aground.

The coastguard was called at about 11:40 BST to help a rigid hulled inflatable vessel with a fouled propeller by a sandbank off Norfolk.

Caister Lifeboat coxswain Guy Gibson said the boat was "dead in the water" and at risk of stranding for hours.

The 12 passengers were transferred to the lifeboat, which towed the two-crew inflatable to Lowestoft in Suffolk.

Mr Gibson said the boat, which was about eight metres (26ft) long, was in less than a metre of water (3ft) off Caister when the lifeboat arrived in the Scroby Sands area.

"The tide was ebbing, so where they were sat, they would have been high and dry on the sandbank within 10 or 15 minutes and stuck out there for a whole tide," he said.

"We wouldn't have got [them] off until the evening, when the tide came up."

The propeller fouled when a mooring rope got sucked into the jet.

The coxswain added that the inflatable's skipper "knew what he was doing - if he hadn't got his anchor out quickly, he'd have been stuck".

The lifeboat pulled the stranded boat into deeper water, where they were able to transfer the passengers.

The children, who were aged between 10 and 18, "loved getting on the lifeboat" and "ate all my chocolate we keep onboard for the crew", he said.

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