Lifeboats were launched after a motor cruiser ran aground on the Hook Sands off Birchington yesterday.

The vessel, a 12-metre motor cruiser, had got into trouble between the River Medway and Ramsgate.

The inshore lifeboat threw anchor and helped the two occupants refloat their craft on the rising tide.

Margate lifeboat coxswain Trevor Lamb said: "Powered craft can quite easily damage their propellers and rudders when they run aground which may not become apparent until they refloat. We urge boat owners always to notify the coastguard if they run aground so that assistance can be provided at an early stage, put another way we like to help prevent a drama becoming a crisis."

It comes just days after Dover coastguard were called to a man at Margate Harbour on Thursday, who was threatening to commit suicide by jumping off the end of the harbour wall into the sea.

The inshore lifeboat was launched and stood by while police negotiated with the man. After a while the police managed to talk him away from the edge of the wall.

Then on Friday, a member of the public told the coastguard they had seen a man fall into the sea from his kayak off Westgate Bay and said he appeared to be having difficulty getting back into the craft.

When the lifeboat arrived the man and his kayak had managed to reach some stairs adjacent to the sea wall. As he was showing some signs of exhaustion the lifeboat took him back to the beach at the Nayland Rock at Margate from where he had launched.