Missing person

Wednesday was a particularly busy day for the ILB who had a shout in the early afternoon. Apparently a person was threatening to jump off the cliffs near Old Harry. The ILB was paged and quickly launched. At the same time the Coastguard proceeded to search the top of the cliffs. Nothing was found so all units were returned to base or station and stood down. Crew were Gav (helm), Ant and Darren.

A new member of the family

Congratulations are due to the Corbens.

David and Marion finally became grandparents yesterday evening as a new young Corben (no name has been chosen yet) was born at Dorchester Maternity Hospital, weighing in at 8lb 15oz. Mother, father, son (and grandparents) are all doing well.

By all accounts Ant’s first aid training came in very handy (I have yet to discover all of the gory details)!

No doubt we will soon have a chance to get together and 'wet the babies head'. Congratulations to you all!

Dexter

On the whole I try not to mention casualties by name so as not to embarass them. On this occasion it probably doesn't matter if I do. Shortly after 1 this afternoon the ILB was asked to launch by Portland to retrieve a dog (Dexter)which had fallen down the cliff near Old Harry. As is so often the case he was basically fine. In fact, so fine that he got up and swam out to the ILB! If only people bounced as well. Kev, Oli and Ant were back on the slip shortly after they handed Dexter over to his relieved owners at Middle Beach in Studland.

The family just got bigger

On Saturday afternoon our lifeboating family got a little bit bigger. Anthony Corben, son of ex-crewmember Dave (and his glorious wife Marion), finally tied the knot with his fiance Margaret.They were blessed with glorious weather which provided a day to remember. Sadly I was still trapped in Northern Spain so could not share the happy day with them.Still, by all accounts it was a fabulous day and a party to remember. Welcome to the club both of you and welcome to the family Margaret!

Romantic sponges, they say, do it
Oysters down in oyster bay do it
Let's do it, let's fall in love
(George & Ira Gershwin)

Comings and goings

There was a shore based exercise last night at the boathouse going over some first aid type stuff. I wasn't there but met up with the gang in the Anchor afterwards so as to have a brief meeting with Becky about lifeboat week. Needless to say this didn't happen......or if it did our conclusions are lost. Nevertheless, the gang was on top form and provided excellent entertainment. Jon Deas was being his usual quite and retiring self. However, he did come up with the most excellent nick-name for our two latest recruits, 'Laurel & Hardy'. Poor Nick and Ollie are still trying to work out who is who but I am sure it will stick.Jo was also there last night, always up for an impromptu party and full of fun and mild amounts of madness (think cat on a windy day).Congratulations to Ant Corben who has just this week finished his probationary year and is now a fully fledged crewmember. He has a very large pair of lifeboating wellies to fill but I am certain he will do this with panache and style.....welcome aboard!

Counter Intuition

I have heard it said that one should never trust an estate-agent. May I suggest that you might want to reconsider this advice if he happened to be the only thing standing between you and aquatic safety?

Anthony is the latest in a line of Corbens who have been both Lifeboatmen and, that rarest of rare, honourable and trustworthy estate-agents.

You may wish to spare a thought for Anthony's old man, Dave. He has recently emerged from a hospital visit where he had one of his major internal organs fiddled with (and who says estate-agents have no heart?) Get well soon Dave.