Festive RNLI exercise interrupted by real rescue

The St Helier lifeboat crew were wearing Christmas fancy dress at the time

A Jersey lifeboat crew had to interrupt a festive navigation exercise to rescue a fishing boat in difficulty.

The St Helier RNLI crew members were wearing Christmas fancy dress as they took the all-weather lifeboat on a training exercise on Sunday.

The plan was to navigate a course that would show up on their computer screen as a Christmas present.

Before finishing the task they responded to an emergency call from a fishing boat that was in difficulty.

The crew did not finish the Christmas present before it was called to a rescue

James Russell, from the RNLI, said the crew had almost finished tying the bow on the present when they received the call.

He said: "I think they had done four sides of the square before the coastguard got in touch on the radio - there was a fishing vessel that needed some assistance, so that was it.

"The exercise stopped, and all the crew jumped into the role that they know they have and made their way to assist the fishing vessel."

The crew said it had successfully drawn a star on the GPS map on Saturday

The fishing boat, which had a mechanical problem, was towed back to shore.

The crew had also been training on Saturday when they successfully managed to plot a star in the sea just off Corbière.