CABIN CRUISER TOWED OFF SANDS Clacton-on-Sea, Essex. At 11.56 on the night of the 12th May, 1962, the coastguard informed the coxswain that a small craft was reported to be aground on the Sunk Sands near No. 6 Barrow West buoy and that she was showing red flares. There were light airs and the sea was slight. At 12.40 the life-boat Cunard, on temporary duty at the station, was launched on the ebbing tide.

On reaching the position the life-boat found that the cabin cruiser Fluminense had drifted on to the Sunk Sands. The Fluminense was on passage from Richmond, Surrey, to Lowestoft and had sailed from Southend-on-Sea the day before. Off the Colne estuary she had developed engine trouble and had drifted on to the sands. The life-boat stood by until there was enough water to enable her to go alongside the Fluminense. She then towed the cabin cruiser to Brightlingsea and returned to her station, which she reached at nine o'clock in the morning..