Port St Mary’s lifeboat crew was alerted this morning after a kite surfer was seen by a member of the public becoming separated from their board and appeared to be in difficulty and getting pulled out to sea.

At 10.22am on Tuesday the Spirit of Leicester was paged by Belfast Coastguard to help a kite surfer at Derbyhaven.

However, due to the force six south-easterly wind and moderate sea conditions, the decision was made four minutes later that Port St Mary’s relief Trent class all-weather lifeboat RNLB Forward Birmingham, was a preferred vessel to attend due to the urgency to reach the casualty as quickly as possible.

But as Forward Birmingham was just about to cast off and head towards Derbyhaven, Belfast Coastguard said that the kite surfer had managed to make it safely back to shore without assistance and so at 10.37am Port St Mary RNLI was stood down.

Port St Mary RNLI Lifeboat operations manager Sarah Keggen said: ’We wish to thank the member of the public for their quick response in alerting the coastguard to the kite surfer’s situation and although the lifeboat wasn’t required this time it goes to show how quickly these incidents can escalate.’