The volunteer Penlee RNLI lifeboat crew had an early start this morning 11 February when they were paged at 6.15am to assist a fisherman who had run aground on Mousehole Island.

Both the inshore and all weather lifeboat were launched and quickly made their way to the scene. With the 25 foot fishing vessel taking on water, the crewman had got off the boat and had alerted the coastguard from the dry land and safety of the island.

He was quickly rescued by the inshore lifeboat crew and taken back to Newlyn as he was suffering from the cold, while the all weather lifeboat crew secured a tow to the fishing vessel and towed it back to the harbour.

Patrick Harvey, coxswain of the Penlee all weather lifeboat Ivan Ellen said: "It was extremely dark when we launched and the visibility wasn’t good at all with a lot of cloud. Thankfully it was a calm sea with a light south easterly wind, so the inshore lifeboat crew were able to safely get close enough into the island to quickly evacuate the casualty. He’d done exactly the right thing and got himself onto dry land to await rescue.

"The crew were back and changed by 7.30am, in time for a decent breakfast before heading off to work."