A FAMILY scattering the ashes of their great-grandmother at sea could not help but see the funny side when their boat ran aground.

Eighteen members of Doreen Legg’s family boarded the Solent Scene on Saturday for the ceremony.

They were scattering the ashes off Old Harry Rocks, Doreen’s favourite spot, when the pleasure boat got stuck on rocks.

But the tears soon turned to laughter, said granddaughter Natalie Clark.

“Nan had a wicked sense of humour and we thought this was her having the last laugh with us,” she said.

“It had taken some organising getting everyone together.

“We all ended up in Swanage having fish and chips and watching the Red Arrows – two of Nan’s favourite things.

“It ended up as an occasion to remember.”

Doreen was sadly killed in a car crash in Poole on December 23 last year.

Natalie said the boat incident was the latest in a string of spooky occurrences.

“The day Nan died the skies were black and there was an almighty thunderstorm,” she said. “Then the day she was cremated there was huge amounts of snow and half the family couldn’t make it.”

Many members of the family had travelled down from Cleveland for Saturday’s occasion.

They managed a toast to Doreen on board the boat before they were transferred by the RNLI to Swanage.

The family accounted for almost half the 38 passengers on board the boat when it ran aground at around noon.

No one was injured but among the passengers transferred to safety were a grandfather in a wheelchair and a seven-month-old baby.

Blue Line Cruises, who run the Solent Scene, are investigating the incident.