Once again the weather is foul. True lifeboat weather. Even the blackheaded gulls look frustrated with the minimal headway they can make into the 50mph winds. And yet we are safe on shore. And that is the interesting thing about lifeboat work. The shouts don't come when expected, anything but, they arrive like the Spanish Inquisition, un-announced and under a cloak of secrecy. It's now 3 months since our Mersey has been used in anger. This is a long time. I can't remember the last time we went so long without our services being required. And in a way this is frustrating. We train hard, have high expectations of ourselves, and we hope to be called upon. Not that we wish miss-fortune on others. Quite the opposite. However, there is still that lingering sense of unfulfilled potential when the storm has passed. We were ready, we are always ready.......
The wind in the wires made a tattletale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the Captain did, too,
T'was the witch of November come stealing.
Gordon Lightfoot
2 comments:
Falmouth Coastguard are currently co-ordinating a search 7 miles south of Falmouth, for a female steward who is believed to have gone overboard from the 24,000 gross registered tonne Russian bulk carrier Vera Maretskaya.
Falmouth Coastguard were called by the Vera Maretskaya at 10.50 this morning. They requested the launch of the RNLI all weather lifeboats from Falmouth and Lizard. Two rescue helicopters from Culdrose were also scrambled and are currently on scene.
Falmouth Coastguard Watch Manager, Mick Quinn, says:
We know approximately when this woman fell overboard and with the technology available to us we have a search area mapped out. Conditions are currently extremely poor with South Westerly gale force 9 winds. We will continue to search for this woman using our Search and Rescue resources until all Search areas are covered.
I know that feeling that you describe in the post. Almost expecting the pager to go off because the awful weather will have surely caused a incident somewhere your patch.
This afternoon coastguard colleagues in my sector(local CG area) discovered the person they were out looking for - however the person was no longer in the land of the living. So here's to quiet pager's.
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