steer a lost yacht onto the right course.

Officials from Harbour Radio watched the 40-foot sailing vessel Minnela hoist its anchor from St. George's Harbour at around 12 noon yesterday.

And they watched from their station at Fort George as the yacht, with one man on board, headed out of Bermuda on totally the wrong course.

Radio experts called Marine Police who ferried the yacht back on track.

A Harbour Radio spokesman said: "We could actually see her setting sail and that's how we knew she was about to run into trouble.

"She came out of the harbour but didn't let us know that she was actually sailing.

"We tried to get her on the radio but she wasn't responding. Then we saw the Minnela heading on totally the wrong course.'' "This happens quite a lot when sailors don't know Bermuda that well,'' added the spokesman.

"We called the Marine Police and they sent a section boat out to intercept it.

"Thankfully, they were able to set her on the right course and she had already cleared all the immigration papers so everything was in order.'' He said the Minnela was just off Kitchens Shoals, four miles northeast of St.

George's, when Police set her straight for her return journey to the US East Coast.