Medical Evacuation at Islay Islay's Thames class lifeboat was involved in a relatively routine medivac on 4 August 1994 but, routine or not, this account from one of those on the receiving end of a lifeboat service illustrates the feelings and emotions of those who are waiting for the lifeboat to arrive.

The experience of my wife and I illustrates the excellent work of the Islay lifeboat, and will for yachtsmen perhaps act as a cautionary tale.

On 4 August 1994 we were in our pre-war 33ft yawl, at anchor in Plod Sgeiran at the southeast corner of Islay. We had sailed across from Ireland the day before.

My wife was starting to get dressed in cramped conditions, sitting on a low bunk, when I heard a yelp of pain. As she pulled on her sock a replacement hip fitted four years ago became dislocated and she was in acute pain.

Our unskilled efforts to get the joint back in failed.

The nearest house was some distance away, and anyway I could not have left her to go for help. At 0845 I called Belfast Coastguard on VHP, as reception is much clearer than towards Clyde, to which Belfast in due course transferred me - with the help of a yacht lying at Gigha as relay.

Islay's deputy launching authority, Alasdair Urquart at Port Askaig, about 10 miles from where we lay, had his crew ready in minutes but decided they should wait for a doctor.

At 1011 the orange deckhouse of the Islay lifeboat appeared over the rocks - one of the more welcome sights of my life.

Thomas Johnston at the helm threaded her through the shallows and came alongside. The crew (Iain Spears, Alasdair Barker, Dugald Ferguson and David Rounce) made fast and helped to make my wife comfortable with hot water bottles and blankets. Their presence was most comforting.

At 1115 Dr Jean Knowles came to the nearest landing point at Knock Bay and was collected by inflatable. She gave my wife an injection and arranged by radio for an air ambulance to take her to Glasgow. Tom decided to tow us to Port Ellen and take her ashore there - direct from our cabin, a very wise move.

An ambulance was at the quay and the paramedics got my wife onto a Robinson stretcher and manoeuvred her sideways through the main hatch as it was too wide to go out f l a t .

An hour and a half later she was in hospital and the hip was back in that evening. The lifeboat crew kindly put the yacht on a mooring and looked after her until I returned some days later.

Our feelings still are of greatest gratitude for the technical competence and human kindness of the Islay crew, Coastguards, doctors and all who helped.

Afterwards there were a lot of thanks to be written-as well as something which casualties do not always remember, a voluntary contribution to the station funds to cover, as a minimum, fuel and crew costs for the service..