This time last year

Well, another quiet weekend has passed without incident. The crew remain patiently poised. We are back up to full strength this week as a lot were away last week for the boatshow........photos to follow.

In the absence of any fresh news I noticed that this time last year we were on our third shout of the year. This time Portland Coastguard requested that we launch the ALB to stand by the 58,000 ton Ro/Ro motor vessel 'Courage' that was dead in the water with a generator room fire 20 miles SSE of Swanage. We launched at 06:08 to assist in moderate weather and sea conditions but were stood down whilst still on passage at 07:10 (having covered 15 miles) as the ship had regained power and was making way. We returned to station and were back on the slipway at 08:13, just in time to head off to work as I remember!

Of course in this sort of situation there would be little if anything we could do about the fire, but we would be able to remove the crew if that became necessary. Luckily on this occasion this was not necessary. A happy outcome.