Two men who left personal belongings in an inflatable dinghy floating in the river Exe sparked a search by the coastguard and RNLI yesterday.
Both the Exmouth lifeboats were called out to look for a possible missing person in the river between Starcross yacht club and Cockwood.
The operation was called off two hours later when the men on board a sailing boat identified the dinghy as their tender.
The RNLI say they'd rather be called out on a false alarm than miss a potential rescue - but have advised the dinghy's owner to mark it clearly to avoid a repeat situation.
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