At 1.30 p.m. on loth October, 1966, the local doctor informed the honorary secretary that he needed to go to Inishmaan and the Inishere islands to attend patients. At 2.30, when the life-boat Mabel Marion Thompson left her moorings, it was thirty minutes after high water. The doctor was taken to Inishmaan, and from there to Inishere Island. The life-boat returned to her moorings at 7.30.