Local lifeboats have been called out for the third time in three days to a 100 tonne survey vessel which was previously stranded on a Pembrokeshire beach.
The 24-metre boat was at at Newgale for a survey operation, understood to involve connecting high speed fibre optic cable from Ireland to Brawdy Business Park on behalf of Vodafone.
(Image: Peter Thomas) Vodaphone confirmed that the ship was operating on behalf of the company but said that it could not confirm the nature of the work as it was ‘commercially sensitive’.
A spokesperson for the company said: “We can confirm that a licensed subsea cable survey ship being managed by a subcontractor experienced some technical difficulties when seeking to leave Newgale beach in Pembrokeshire at high tide yesterday.
(Image: Peter Thomas) “We expect the issue to be resolved soon.”
The vessel, the KMS Terramare, became stranded on Tuesday evening following failure of one of its engines. Attempts by St Davids RNLI Lifeboat to tow it away from the beach and to load salvage pumps had to be abandoned due to sea conditions.
(Image: Peter Thomas) Yesterday, Wednesday, January 15, St Davids Lifeboat was again requested to launch at 7.59pm to provide salvage pumps and escort the vessel to Milford Haven due to concerns for crew safety.
Angle RNLI also launched to provide assistance and local coastguard teams were present.
(Image: Peter Thomas)
It is understood that a tug towed the vessel off Newgale, however it did not make it to Milford Haven and set anchor off Broad Haven. St Davids Lifeboat returned to station at 4.10am today.
The lifeboat was requested to launch to the same vessel just over six hours later, at 10.35am, this morning.
St Davids Lifeboat confirmed that it is currently at the scene.
The Western Telegraph has contacted HM Coastguard about the ongoing rescue situation and we will update you as soon as we can.