Dunbar, East Lothian - At 9.47 a.m.

on 3rd April, 1966, the coastguard informed the coxswain of the life-boat that the cabin cruiser Fiola of Glasgow, with a crew of three, was aground on Belhaven Sands. The owner of the cabin cruiser told the coastguard that they were bound from South Queensferry to Rochester and had deliberately run on to the sands as one of the crew was sick. In the absence of the honorary secretary the coxswain decided to go to their assistance as the Fiola was lying in a potentially dangerous position. At 9.58 the life-boat City of Bradford II, on temporary duty at the station, proceeded in a light breeze from the north-east and a slight sea. It was half an hour after low water. The coxswain asked the owner to lay an anchor to seaward and then attempted without success to fire a line aboard. However, on the flood tide the Fiola managed to pull herself off the beach using her own engines, and the life-boat escorted the cabin cruiser into Dunbar harbour, arriving at 1.42 p.m..