SICK MAN TAKEN TO MAINLAND St. Mary's, Scilly Islands. At 11.40 on the morning of the 6th January, 1962, a local doctor asked the honorary secretary if the life-boat could take a man to Penzance for an emergency operation for acute appendicitis. A helicopter was standing by, but thick fog prevented it from taking off. No other boat was available, and at 11.50 the life-boat Guy and Clare Hunter was launched with the sick man and a nurse on board. The life-boat made the journey to the mainland in a light westerly breeze and a moderate sea and reached Penzance at 4.12. The man was transferred to a waiting ambulance, and the life-boat then returned to the station, arriving at 9.20..