AN OFF-DUTY coastguard has been reunited with the two young girls he saved from being swept out to sea on boogie boards.
Eve Watson, eight, and Fearn Hayley, 10, were playing on their boards near a beach when the weather worsened.
Fearn’s mother, Rhona, was watching them from Farr Beach, Sutherland, and tried to wade into the sea but failed to reach the two girls.
Onlookers heard their screams and called 999 but before paramedics arrived, off-duty coastguard Jamie Magee jumped on to his 13ft Pioneer dinghy and caught up with the girls within 15 minutes.
Mr Magee said: “I could hear them screaming and see their heads sticking out of the water.
“Fearn, who was wearing a wetsuit, was still screaming but Eve, who was dressed in a swimming costume was quiet and when I pulled her aboard, it was clear that she was very, very cold.
“She was starting to suffer from the onset of hypothermia and I needed to get her to the paramedics on shore.”
Mr Magee had been out delivering crabs to a nearby house when he heard the shouts on August 25.
HM Coastguard deputy head of coastal operations Richard Hackwell said: “Jamie’s quick thinking that afternoon saved the lives of two children.”
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