Only a few days ago I was musing on the fact that it is now some 3 months since we have launched our ALB on a shout. To us this seems incredible. We are beginning to feel that one of two things may have happened: Either, dear old Portland Coastguard has forgotten who we are. Or, people have suddenly learned from the mistakes of the past and developed a dramatic increase in their available common sense, luck and quality of equipment. Unlikely?However, spare a thought for the crew of Swanage's first lifeboat, 'The Charlotte Mary'. In their first year they launched but 4 times. They then had a slightly lean patch of 3 years without a shout. A further 4 years went by before their services were required again. They then had to wait 6 years to be called again! A total of 7 shouts in a 13 year period. Now I recon they felt they had been forgotten. In between shouts they did little training either. At that time most of the crew were fishermen or boatmen fully familiar with boats and the sea. Every 3 months they exercised, no more and no less.
Tonight we will exercise. We have an assessor with us who will be looking to assess a number of crew on some aspects of their competency based training plans. This can create cases of nerves. It is in a very real sense a judgement of a crewmembers skills. They are measured against an absolute standard and either pass or fail. Good luck!
Now I was sitting waiting wishing
That you believed in superstitions
Then maybe you'd see the signs
But Lord knows that this world is cruel
And I ain't the Lord, no I'm just a fool
Jack Johnson
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