DIFFICULT PASSAGE TO NORTHERN ISLAND Aith, Shetlands. At 6.50 on the evening of the 8th February, 1962, a doctor in Walls informed the honorary secretary that he had received an urgent call from a nurse on Foula Island for him to attend a patient. As there was no other suitable boat available to make the crossing in the prevailing weather conditions, the lifeboat John and Frances Macfarlane left her moorings with the doctor on board at 8.10 in a west-south-westerly wind of near gale force. There was a rough sea, and it was one hour after low water. Very bad visibility caused by snow and sleet showers made the passage to Foula a difficult one, but the life-boat arrived alongside the pier at 2.15 in the morning and the doctor was put ashore. At 6.5 the doctor with a stretcher party and the patient arrived at the pier. The patient and the doctor were embarked, and the life-boat left at 6.15. She reached her station at 9.13, when the patient was taken by ambulance to hospital..