Visitors

It was exercise night last night and visitors were everywhere. Now that the school holidays have begun our every movement will be watched eagerly by expectant crowds such as these.

We also had a group of staff from HQ in Poole over for a visit. Andy White (oe of our old inspectors now running the 'Train One Save Many' campaign) had brought them over so that they could get a flavour of what goes on during a training night and how we approach training up new crewmembers.

Martin took the Mersey to sea with half of them aboard and let them get their hands on the various controls.

Meanwhile back in the boathouse I did a little bit of shore based training with the other half (knots, throwing a heaving line, a bit of chartwork and a Q&A session). I have to say that I really enjoy this sort of visit. Most of us here on the coast understand that without the support of everyone at HQ we would be unable to do our job. I think that for them it is a great chance to dispel some myths and clear up any misconceptions (one lady was astonished to see the large stack of letters we have recently got from people we have rescued).

Needless to say, once the boat was on the slip, washed down and in the boathouse it was of to the ship for a quick half...