Nathan row your boat ashore...

A festival-goer had to be rescued after he attempted to row two miles across a busy shipping lane in the dark – and lost both his oars.

Nathan Byng, in his 20s, was at the Isle of Wight Festival over the weekend and was trying to take a short-cut across the Solent to his home in Portsmouth.

Soon after 3am yesterday, he had to call the coastguard from his unlit, drifting rowing boat, using a mobile phone.

A coastguard spokesman said: 'It might have been an easier option to take the ferry back.'