TWO foreign fishermen have been dramatically winched to safety by Royal Navy helicopter after their vessel sank in the Firth of Clyde.
The men had been clinging to The Gantocks outcrop off Dunoon in Argyll for several hours in high winds and rain after the small boat went down at around 6am yesterday.
An RNLI lifeboat from Helensburgh was unable to reach them in the rough seas as rescuers faced a race against rising tides.
A ferry kept the men in sight by circling the area until a Royal Navy Sea King from Prestwick took them to Dunoon, where a fleet of emergency vehicles was on standby. However, the fishermen did not require hospital treatment.
A Maritime and Coastguard Agency spokeswoman said: "They were lucky that they were able to find a relatively safe spot and lucky that they were spotted on CCTV."
The incident came on another day of strong winds and torrential downpours which continued to cause disruption for motorists, rail travellers and ferry users.
In the Highlands, tree felling operations above the A82 was partly blamed for two landslips on Sunday that left around 15 vehicles carrying 50 people temporarily stranded.
Nobody was hurt after the route was closed between the Corran Ferry and Fort William, causing a detour of up to 160 miles.
Road campaigners also said information on road closures from Traffic Scotland was "worse than useless" after the key route was blocked for over a day.
The Met Office Amber warning for heavy rain in the area was extended until noon today, as the finger was pointed at forestry clear-felling operations above the road as being a contributory factor. The A82 partially reopened yesterday afternoon with temporary traffic lights at two points, Corrycurrachan Bridge and also at Glenrigh.
Stewart MacLean of the A82 Partnership campaign group said the stretch had been closed several times over the past three years. Motorists faced a detour of up three hours by Loch Tay, impacting on businesses.
He said: "Some local people are seeing a connection with the forestry operations which have been going on above the road during that period. There is no question that the road was closed at one point because felled timber had come down off the hill on to the road."
He branded Traffic Scotland's information as "worse than useless" and said a Variable Message Sign in Fort William had wrongly suggested drivers could get to the Corran Ferry. Signs for drivers from the south, he said, were also incorrect.
A Transport Scotland spokeswoman said the message signs are "designed to give strategic travel information and more local information is distributed on social media, the Traffic Scotland website and on Traffic Scotland radio."
A Forestry Commission Scotland spokesman said it would investigate further to see what had happened after it has cleared away the debris. He added that rainfall levels have been "exceptionally high" in recent days. A further meeting of the Scottish Government's Resilience Room was chaired by Transport Minister Keith Brown yesterday.
He said "The Scottish Government and our partners have been working hard to mitigate the impacts of the heavy rain and the strong winds."
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