A man who tried to swim to Southend in his underpants was just one call-out for RNLI volunteers over a busy weekend.

The Sheerness lifeboat teams were called when the person jumped into the water at Gillingham Marina.

The inshore boat 'Buster' ferried an officer to the man who had perched himself on a yacht on Saturday afternoon.

The un-named man did not want to talk to police but the situation was resolved.

The lifeboat was launched at 1.30pm and was back at base by 3.45pm.

The following day, the crew of the all-weather lifeboat 'Judith Copping Joyce' were tasked by the UK Coastguard to assist the Southend RNLI Hovercraft at around 10.30pm.

It had been called out to three young men aground in Yantlet Creek on the Isle of Grain who had travelled from Brentford Lock, around 50 miles away if walking.

The lifeboat could only get as close as the West Nore Sands Buoy which, due to the low water conditions, was about a mile from the stranded men.

With the hovercraft able to cross the mud, the three young men were ferried back to the boat which took them to the station at Sheerness where they were put ashore at 12.30am.

Sheerness RNLI press officer Vic Booth said: "This incident is remarkable for the fact that these three chaps had ‘set sail’ from Brentford Lock on the River Thames with no previous boating experience, no navigational experience, no means of communication other than mobile phones, no money and even more worrying not a single item of safety equipment.

"It is unbelievable that they managed to get as far as they did without hitting something or even worse being hit by any of the large vessels that use this extremely busy stretch of the Thames Estuary.

"Other than being very cold and muddy the three were all OK."

No other details as to what happened to their craft or how they got back to their homes in North London are available at this time.

The crews were also called to two other incidents over the weekend in the Medway Towns in the early hours of Saturday.