LIFEBOAT volunteers had a busy day in Mersea.

Coastguards received an emergency call on Saturday at 3.28am from the 84-year-old man in the yacht Plover that had run aground in the Mersea Quarters.

The yacht was in danger of overturning and Thames Coastguard decided the skipper should come off for his own safety.

West Mersea RNLI Lifeboat took the occupant to the Lifeboat House.

The crew was out again at 2.20pm when it took a 60-year-old yachtsman who had suffered a dislocated shoulder to a waiting ambulance.

The ambulance was unable to gain access to the island because the causeway was covered at high tide.

They repeated the feat 40 minutes later when an elderly man who had suffered a suspected stroke needed to be taken to hospital.