I've just had this short YouTube clip brought to my attention. It shows Tower Lifeboat conducting a 'textbook' rescue of a swimmer in the water. You can't see her face but I got a definite sense that she was somewhat relieved! Well done guys (and girls). I say girls because good friend of Swanage crew, Jen Court, previously one of the trainers at the Lifeboat College, is now one of the full time crew at the station. I wonder is she was involved in this rescue?
Incidentally, Tower and the other Thames lifeboat stations (except Teddington), are unique among RNLI stations in that they have a greater number of full-time crew than normal. This is because they have a far shorter response time (90 seconds) due to the majority of their shouts involving people in the water. Thus their station is fully manned 24 hours a day 7 days a week with one full time crewmember and two volunteers.
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A scrapbook of the lifeboat year in Swanage as it appears to me: the characters, the boats, the shouts, training, thoughts and fun
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- lifeboatjohn
- Born in the North of England and a Yorkshire man to the bones (like a Scotsman but with the streak of generosity removed). A sailor at heart with a passion for my family, the ocean, watersports, mountains and making journeys under my own steam. Previously a Submariner and a crewman on the Swanage Lifeboat, I now spend my time as the Head teacher of Craigclowan Prep School, a vibrant and exciting shool in Perthshire, Scotland.
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This is a personal blog. The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of the RNLI or anyone else. It is intended to provide a chronicle of a year in the life of Swanage Lifeboat Station, it's boats and it's crew. My thoughts and opinions change from time to time..........I consider this a necessary consequence of having an open mind. Therefor any post is a snapshot of a moment in time and is a manifestation of the various ideas running around my brain at the time it was written. As such any thoughts and opinions expressed within out-of-date posts may not be the same, nor even similar, to those I hold today. Any costs involved have been met by myself in their entirety, no RNLI funds have been spent on this, not even a little. Most importantly, this blog never intends to be in anyway critical or judgemental of those people we rescue. Accidents happen.............
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5 comments:
very interesting vid - however do you get a sense that a) they missed the first approach and b) had they had a crewmember in a drysuit they could have deployed with a safety line to compensate for this approach? Nonetheless a good save.
Yes, Jen was driving, and yes Crosshaven is correct, the clip has been edited as it took a while to get alongside! Driving lessons me feel! BUt a good job well done.
You're quite right, it certainly looks as if the Helm misses on the first approach. It looks to me as if the first approach is with the tidal flow...perhaps this is why? Nevertheless, job done quickly and relatively efficiently, I'm not going to criticise as I know very well how hard it can be!
Absolutely - as someone once said it doesnt really matter how you rescue them as long as you do! I was just interested in the difference in methods (drysuit & swim line) between Thames & A75 on the coast.
John - we usually ignore current at sea on the 75 as it should have a similar effect on both cas & lb - however, I suspect that might not be the case with the speed of the Thames? And them buggers can cheat by going sideways too (just saw a bit of that Jen!)
Safe lifeboating
Crosser.
Of course the clip has been edited as the rnli press centre requires only 30 second clps as they're e-mailable, and cutting out the bad bits!
What it doesn't show is the collision with a big passenger vessel on the way back to station as someone wasn't looking where they were going and freaked out. The lifeboat was close to being T boned and run over. I don't know Jen, but hear she'd never driven a boat before she got to Tower. Experience counts for alot!
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