BY KIRSTY WATT
Skye teenager Archie Law saved the lives of two men last Saturday after they got into difficulty on an inflatable toy dinghy in Broadford Bay.
15-year-old Archie was praised by the RNLI for his ‘quick thinking’ as he took his own boat out to rescue the men after seeing them floundering on an inflatable dinghy between Scalpay and Pabay around 9pm on Saturday night.
Speaking to Radio Skye earlier this week, Archie said: “I was just having dinner when I saw a little boat out in front of our house. I never really see any boats in front of the house, not wee ones like that.
“I could see it was just a rowing boat going in circles and I was a bit confused about it. I decided I would get my boat out and see if they needed help or a tow back.
“On my way out it was pretty windy, the waves were coming over my boat and I thought ‘god, I hope I don’t have to do too much to help’. [When I got about 100ft from it] I could see it was like a Co-op dinghy with two guys inside.
“They started throwing help signs at me. I got them on my boat and checked they were all right – they had jumpers and little shorts on and their clothes were soaking. They didn’t really know the situation they were in at all. They were glad to see me, but they didn’t seem too worried about it.
“They had been pretty much smack bang in the middle between Pabay and Scalpay, very far out, drifting along. There’s a current that takes you along between the islands, out to the Inner Sound and then out to the Minch. They were very close to being lost.
They had no lifejackets on so they could have drowned. I think they were very fortunate I was there at the right time.”
Unknown to Archie, the Kyle Lifeboat was also on its way and when he got the two men ashore, they were met by a member of the lifeboat crew.
Andrew MacDonald, from the Kyle RNLI, said: “Thanks to the quick thinking of the teenager going out in his own boat to rescue the two casualties, a far more serious situation was averted.”
Archie said: “I was just there, looking at it, at the right time. I didn’t really think of myself as a hero on Sunday morning. As I went to work, I just thought it was a funny story to tell people. In my break on Sunday I was looking on my phone and there were all these messages and people started sending me the link to the lifeboat and what they had said, and my mum started getting calls from all the newspapers and that’s when I really realised that people actually cared about it. Because it feels like, around here, it’s just a thing anyone else would do if they had a boat and were there at the same time.”
Andrew added: “We’d like to remind people that blow-up inflatable toys should be kept for use in swimming pools and not open water, and to always ensure that you have lifejackets on and a means of communicating to the emergency services if you get into any difficulty.”
