A HAPLESS fisherman was rescued at sea – only to come back to dry land and find his car had been submerged after parking at Dunbar Harbour!

The unknown driver left the silver Peugeot on the ramp while he went fishing on Saturday.

However, his boat broke down and he never made it back in time to collect the vehicle before the tide came in.

Dunbar RNLI Coxswain Gary Fairbairn said: “The owner of the car reversed the car and trailer down the slope to launch the boat.

“Obviously, he launched the boat but he forgot about the car.” Volunteers had to then use the RNLI Land Rover to pull the car out of the water before they could launch their own vessel.

The Dunbar Lifeboat was paged by Aberdeen Coastguard at about 1.10pm on Saturday after reports about a car in the harbour.

Crew tried to get in touch with the owner of the car, who was out at sea.

Unfortunately, both Dunbar Lifeboat and Aberdeen Coastguard were unable to do so and so the inshore rescue boat was sent to search for the boat.

It was discovered the 12-16-foot angling boat had suffered engine trouble and was towed ashore.

There, the car was also checked over and it was pulled out of the rising water shortly after 1pm.

The incident attracted a large crowd at the harbour on Saturday afternoon.

Back on dry land, the coxswain said: “[The car owner] was not very chuffed.” The crew had tried to contact the boat, only to find the radio was off.

However, that was not the last of the action for the town’s RNLI.

They were paged again by Aberdeen Coastguard at about 4pm after reports of divers in difficulty at the back of the harbour.

Again, the inshore lifeboat were on the scene and they spoke to two divers leaving the water, who said they were safe and well.

A further search was also carried out after reports of a diver’s mask in the water, with Dunbar Coastguard and the ILB conducting a search, but they stood down after they were happy that both divers were safe and well.