The lifeboat launched following a report of three people stranded aboard a moored barge off the Long beach, Whitstable.

The three had, with the owner’s permission, been fishing from the vessel. They became stranded after a fourth member of their party who had ferried them out in a canoe, was unable to return them to the shore after his craft developed a leak.

The lifeboat took the three on board and returned them to the shore at the harbour ramp, where they were met by a lifeboat shore party and the Herne Bay Mobile Coastguard Unit.