Out of the blue..........

came three shouts in one evening:

At about 7 o'clock we were paged by Portland to launch both boats to search for a young person who was missing on the cliffs near Anvil Point lighthouse. The Police and Coastguard were concerned that she was going to harm herself. Martin was otherwise engaged with his Grandson 'Jack' so Dave took the boat as Cox. Now these kind of searches generally come to nothing, however, we had a spate of them a year ago which all had fairly grisly conclusions so they are certainly not something we take lightly. Consequently I think most of us onboard were praying that we would have a futile half hours search then 'Rome Tango Bravo' (return to base) having found the 'victim' safe and sound. And that's how it worked out, the coastguards picked the young person up and calmed the situation. Phew!

In the course of the service the ILB completed two rapid inshore searches.

The ALB crew were extra vigilant and searching every crack and crevice.

Skid of course managed to attract every bit of spray which came over the bow.

Meanwhile Jo just looked plain scary for some reason?!

The next shout came sometime later at about 8.30pm (most of us had just got home). This time it was to a RIB which had suffered engine failure near Kimmeridge. Now this is a fairly quiet patch of coastline so naturally the Coastguard wanted them retrieved before nightfall. The ALB proceeded at best speed and once on scene towed the boat a short distance into the slipway in Kimmeridge.

And then..........just as the boat was finished being re-fueled, washed and put away for the night the pagers went off again at about 11.20pm! This time it was a local boat known to us who was having engine trouble. Luckily, just we were assembling another local boat (I think it was Tom) arrived and towed him home so we were stood down.

And so to bed......