The Guardia Civil Marine Service rescued three people in a dingy during the night of Saturday the 26th off the coast of La Herradura. Their outboard had broken down and they were drifting.

It was somebody on or above Cantarriján beach with a telescope/spyglass that alerted the emergency services at 20.15h; i.e., with the day already entering dusk.

The person reported that the people in the dingy, which was about a nautical mile from the coast, were launching distress rockets.

The Guardia immediately dispatched their fast launch S-24 from Motril heading for Playa Cantarriján and within 30 minutes managed to locate the dinghy using radar equipment as it was already dark.

The three people aboard the drifting craft explained that the outboard motor had packed up and they had been drifting in the current

The police took them to La Herradura beach, from which they had set out some hours before.

Editorial comment: Hmmm… I’m not as briny as our Ed, but I would have thought that having a couple of paddles in the dinghy, just in case, no matter how reliable your outboard motor may be, is as elemental as having a spare tyre in your car?

(News: Herradura, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)