Two female swimmers came into trouble after being carried too far off the coast of Eastbourne yesterday.

The women set out from Holywell pleasure beach at about 4pm but were unable to make headway back to the beach against the tide.

Fortunately a local businessman was fishing and had anchored his yacht in the Cow Gap area, where the women climbed aboard.

A spokesman for the Eastbourne RNLI said: "The frightened girls had no option than to make their way to the yacht where they were taken aboard by the MD of a local plumbing wholesale company.

"Dover Coastguard was informed and Eastbourne’s inshore lifeboat was launched to collect the girls and return them to the beach, shaken but otherwise unharmed."