A teenager was rescued after she was discovered clinging to the side of a ferry just inches above the water line.
Vicky Redfern, 18, had leapt to what she thought was safety after the speedboat she was on crashed into the chain ferry which links the Sandbanks Peninsula in Poole Harbour with Studland.
Instead she found herself trapped on a small ledge around the hull of the ferry unable to get off.
She clung on until the ferry’s crew were alerted to her plight and opened a small hatch. As they encouraged her she shuffled 9m (30ft) along the ledge, all the time fearing she could slip in and be drowned.
The speedboat and its owner Robert Hodges were later towed out of danger by the Poole lifeboat.
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Miss Redfern had been on a day out with her friend Phil Hodges, 19, on his father Robert’s 5,4m speedboat. Phil had just got off to use a public toilet on the slipway on the Sandbanks Peninsula when the engine seized. As the boat drifted into the path of the ferry Mr Hodges, 48, told Miss Redfern to jump on to the ledge as there was a danger the speedboat would be dragged under.
Miss Redfern said: “We stopped to let Phil off but then another boat came along and needed to get where we were.
“We started the engine and moved out the way but then it stopped working and the current pushed us into the side of the ferry.
“Rob told me to climb on to the ferry and hold on to the side in case the boat flipped over.”
She clung to the ledge for about five minutes until she was spotted by the crew of an RNLI lifeboat who alerted the ferry. Once the hatch was opened she still had to reach it.
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She said: “I got on to my feet and turned around so my back was to the water and held on to a railing above my head and shuffled sideways until I got to the door.
“It was a big relief when I stepped on to the right side of the ferry.”
Mr Hodges, an engineer from Poole, said: “I got Vicky out on to the side of the chain ferry because I was worried the current and suction would make the boat flip up and she would fall out.
“It all happened so fast. I was just pleased that everyone was OK and came away with no injuries.”
A spokesman for the RNLI said: “The boat was perilously close to the ferry.
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“It could easily have been sucked under as the conditions out in the harbour were rough and choppy.
“It had the potential to be a nasty incident and they were extremely lucky we just happened to be passing.”