Tenby lifeboat launched on Wednesday evening to go to the aid of a sailor on a charity challenge.

The RNLI all-weather lifeboat Haydn Miller was tasked to launch at approximately 9.20 pm, following a report from the sole occupant of a four-metre sailing dinghy that he’d been becalmed 13 miles south of Caldey Island.

Fifty-one-year-old Ken Fowler is in the process of sailing from Land’s End to John O’Groats for charity when the wind died and left him drifting in the Bristol Channel while he was trying to reach his overnight destination of Freshwater East.

Luckily for him, he was well-prepared and had a VHF radio and GPS, so was able to call the coastguard with his position.

The volunteer crew were quickly on the water and reached the casualty 25 minutes later. The occupant was in good health and needed no medical attention. He was brought aboard the lifeboat, along with his sailing vessel and taken to his original destination of Freshwater East. He was then taken ashore in the Y-boat, along with his dinghy and was met by St. Govans Cliff Rescue Team.

The lifeboat was then stood down and returned to station, arriving at 11.10 pm.

Tenby lifeboat coxswain, Phil John said: “Ken was obviously well-prepared, he had a VHF radio and GPS, but was just unlucky when the wind dropped. We wish him all the best on the rest of his challenge and hope the weather is kinder to him.”

Ken Fowler hopes to raise £50k for charity by sailing his RS Aero dinghy from Land’s End to John O’Groats - over 900 miles - in under 20 days. The air traffic controller from Mudeford lost his father to cancer 27 years ago and hopes to raise the money for Cancer Research and the Oakhaven Hospice Trust.

He set off from Land’s End on Sunday, sailing for 10 hours every day and is due to arrive in John O’Groats by June 1.

If successful, Ken will become only the second person to complete this epic journey in a singlehanded dinghy, and break the record for the smallest and fastest dinghy.

His shore team, friends Ian and Jane Pike, are following him in Ken’s 20-year-old campervan.