A sailor enjoying the spring sunshine sparked a call out for Falmouth RNLI last Tuesday after a passing boat mistook them for a person in distress.

Falmouth Inshore Lifeboat launched at around 5pm following a call from a passing boat to report their concern for a member of the public on the shoreline south of the Turnaware Bar on the River Fal.

Arriving on scene at around 5.10pm, RNLI volunteers found the potential casualty on the shoreline and two lifeboat crewmembers were put ashore to check on their condition, only to discover that they were not in any difficulty.

An RNLI spokesperson said: "It turned out that the member of the public was from a nearby sailing vessel, dressed in their sailing kit they had been lying down making the most of the spring sun.

"The boat reporting the incident had passed the location a couple of hours earlier when heading up river so on returning down river and seeing the person in the same position had rightly contacted the Coastguard with their concerns."

The shout out was the first Falmouth call for the relief inshore lifeboat Braemar, which only minutes before taken over from the Eve Pank, which is being sent to Cowes on the Isle of Wight for a refit.