A coastguard crew had to wait just 12 hours into the new year for their first call out of 2021.

Lowestoft RNLI's volunteer crew were called to help a small angling boat in difficulty at 12.21pm on Friday, January 1.

The crew's lifeboat 'Patsy Knight' was called to assist the boat, which had become stranded with an engine failure.

Lifeboat coxswain John Fox said: "We soon reached the 10 metre angling boat which was in the Stanford channel about three quarters of a mile off the pier heads.

"The skipper told us he was experiencing problems with contaminated fuel and although he had initially managed to get the engine going again, it stopped once more.

"The crew connected a tow line and we towed the craft into the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club Marina, arriving just before 1pm."

Reflecting on 2020, a lifeboat spokesman said: "The Lowestoft crew has been called to 26 shouts in 2020, which considering that fewer leisure vessels had been at sea during the lockdowns and Covid restrictions, was quite a surprising number."