Sat-nav leads American tourists to Tenby RNLI station

After driving their brand new Nissan Juke through Castle Square, they proceeded to reverse up the extremely narrow lane that leads to Tenby Lifeboat Station.

A bollard which is normally positioned at the bottom of the lane had been removed, with the result that the women continued onwards and upwards on a journey that beggared belief.

The lane which they drove up (Image: Google)

As the road got narrower the Victorian heritage walls got closer, to the point where the two ladies were forced to admit defeat and abandon the car to the mercy of the car hire company and the ingenious mechanics who had to devise an impossible plan of extracting the vehicle.

The motorists promptly legged it to the station and caught a train to their hotel, saving the delights of St Catherine’s to another day.  The car remained wedged for the remainder of the week as mechanic Stephen Lowe began planning its extraction.

Top of the agenda on several occasions was the idea of cutting the car up into bits and scrapping it. But because it was a brand new model (Nissan Jukes are currently averaging around £27,250), the team felt obliged to come up with alternatives.

And so on Thursday evening, Stephen and his team began scraping mud from the footpath enabling the car’s wheels to gain sufficient traction then early on Friday morning, they began to slowly winch the car out from its hold. Four and a half hours later the Juke was finally back on terra firma.

“It was a pretty incredible operation, and we take our hats off to everyone who was involved in sorting the problem out,” commented one of the Tenby lifeboat crew members.

“But I’m pleased to say that the car was far enough away, so it didn’t impede on our access to and from the station at all.”

Meanwhile, if anyone has attempted to drive their car to St Catherine’s Island just like the plucky American dames, the Western Telegraph would love to hear from you.  (The newsroom thinks it's a figment of sat-nav's imagination).