Dramatic footage from an Ayrshire lifeboat crew has captured an incredible 40-hour rescue mission to save a stricken 96,000 tonne ship.
A video shows how crews battled to prevent disaster to a drill ship which broke away from its anchor just miles away from Hunterston nuclear power station.
As the rescue bid entered its THIRD day, teams who had spent up to 12 hours at the scene were back to tackle 90mph winds and high waves.
Teams from Girvan RNLI, Troon RNLI and Largs RNLI were all called to the vessel as part of a major emergency response on Tuesday evening.
Some of the brave volunteers were out at sea for a 24 hours as they fought to keep the ship with eight crew on board from drifting towards Cumbrae in the storm.
The Valaris DS4 broke away from the dock without power and started drifting towards Cumbrae in the storm.
The drilling vessel – 228 metres in length, weighing 96,000 tonnes – had broken free of its moorings in strong easterly winds. The crew deployed the vessels anchor which appeared to be holding.
Joining the lifeboats from Girvan, Troon and Largs was the Coastguard Rescue helicopter based at Prestwick and the Largs, Cumbrae, Ardrossan, Ayr and Greenock Coastguard rescue teams. Tugs from Greenock were sent to the aid of the vessel too.
Today, the reaming crew of Girvan lifeboat was stood down at 11am, concluding a 40-hour mission.
Girvan RNLI lifeboat operations manager John Gourlay said: "This incident is a testament to our incredible volunteer crews. In the last few days, crews from Troon completed over 23 hours of on-scene support with our crew here in Girvan spending 19 hours at Hunterston – all of this during some very cold, wet and windy weather conditions.
"Our volunteer lifeboat crews on call 24/7, they never know when the next callout will be or how long they will be at sea for. Thanks also go to the families and the employers of the crew members due to the prolonged nature of the callout."
The Valaris DS4 was built in 2010 and is used at the Ayrshire for deep water drilling operations.
Yesterday footage showed the horrendous conditions that Girvan RNLI had to face as they reached the scene.
