MacLENNAN Donald A. 'S truagh nach do dh'fhuirich mi... My name is Dòmhnall Angaidh MacLennan, 53 and I have the good fortune of belonging to 9 Cheesebay, North Uist. One of my passions in life is sea fishing by boat with a hand-line darrow and I was out on Wednesday, April 5, at 5.30 pm, in fresh but improving conditions with a rising tide. The swell caused me to take a stumble backwards whereupon the stern started taking on water and the boat became flooded. Within 5 seconds the boat had capsized with me in the water clinging on. The next half-hour was a grim struggle but by the grace of God, my life jacket and my miracle of being spotted by the Mowi good ship Beinn Bhreac, I was plucked from the water in the narrow channel between Bhacasaigh and Fuam and saved. My advice to others is never to set foot on a pleasure craft of any kind without wearing a properly fastened life jacket which might just save your life, as it undoubtedly did mine. My eternal thanks and that of my family go to the heroic Beinn Bhreac crew as masterfully skippered by Michael with Douglas, Lewis and Ryan, to Robert, Adrian and Sean the attending coastguards in Leverburgh together with the paramedic team of John and my hero Hearach cousin Alasdair so beautifully supported by Diane, to all the wonderful staff of A&E Receiving and the Surgical Ward at the Western Isles Hospital in Stornoway who looked after me so well overnight and to my family and friends for looking out for me. May God continue to bless us all.
