ABERYSTWYTH RNLI Lifeboat volunteers had a busy bank holiday weekend with two shouts and two fundraising engagements keeping the crews on their toes.

The weekend started on Friday evening, 26 May, when four of the crew had just started the AberCycleFest Town and Gown cycle race around the streets of Aberystwyth in old and damaged drysuits, and in sweltering heat.

While the volunteers were taking part in the gruelling race, the rest of the crew were paged to reports of a large inflatable being blown out to sea.

The Arancia inshore rescue boat was quickly launched and made its way to the inflatable, which was off Aberystwyth North Beach in view of the festival crowds where they located the huge inflatable unicorn with no people on board.

A quick search of the area identified no people in distress in the water, so the unicorn was returned to shore and eventually reunited with its owners where sea safety advice on using inflatables with an offshore wind — and magical animal care — was discussed.

Shortly after the Arancia returned to station, the cyclists finished their race and were glad to get some refreshments.

On Sunday, as both lifeboats were getting ready to launch to support the annual Glengower charity raft race, the pagers went off again and the crew were informed that a person was missing.

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