One more day

So I've been away on holiday for a week or so and, with the wonders of facebook, twitter and e-mail knew that I was missing lots of action. This is normal when I am on holiday and generally it is followed by a quiet patch when I return!

Not this time...no sooner had I unpacked my bag and put in the first load of washing than my pager went off. I hitched a lift to the boathouse with Des Fitzgerald (a retired crewmember and a real gent) and soon found us heading further west than we've been for many a year (Gav had to check the chart to discover where Mupe Rocks are!)

Once there we put Matt, our resident marine engineer, onboard who then diagnosed the problem as a fuel issue and in pretty short time fixed it sufficiently for the vessel to proceed on its way to Weymouth.

A few short hours later the pagers went off again for another slightly unusual shout. Dave T mentioned that this was probably the only time that we have launched the ALB and turned immediately to port! It was also probably the shortest ever eta for the ALB...we were on scene within 15 seconds!

It turned out that a passing large cabin cruiser had towed in a small broken down speedboat and had subsequently run ashore on a small reef called the berry. Poor compensation for an act of helpfulness if you ask me!

Anyway, the ILB and various crewmembers in drysuits soon had the boat off it's rocky perch and on their way to Poole. No doubt expensive damage has been done but at least they were afloat and under their own power.

Suprise visit

I wasn't really expecting to take the boat out as Cox'n last night but somehow that's what happened. With little warning I found myself out there with a solid crew but not the most exciting plans of what to do. Imagine my delight then, when I heard over the radio one of our local Coastguard helicopters (Coastguard Helicopter 104, from Solent) calling to tell Deasy (navigator for the evening) that they were in the area and would like to spend some time exercising with us! Excellent...

So, out of the sunset they came, all red, white and exciting!

Their winchman, a nice bloke, came down on the winchwire and gave us a good briefing of what to expect.

All of us were surprised at the amount of spray which gets flung around by this new helicopter compared to the old 'Whiskey Bravo'.

This shot in particular shows vividly the cramped conditions on the afterdeck of a Mersey class lifeboat during helicopter operations.

Then after a few turns with the ILB they were off and heading for home...as were we. To arrive back for a quick washdown before a meeting about this year's lifeboat week.

Happy days!!

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.

Stag do...

Here's the video from the ILB headcam worn by our very own Oli last night.

Thanks to Dave T for editing it.

Oh deer...

Once again I was disturbed in the middle of my dinner (toad in the hole) and made my way quickly down to the boathouse (on the new 'Shout Bike') tonight.

Linda, this weeks DLA, explained that we were being launched to a report of a deer stranded on rocks in Durlston Bay. The ILB made it's way round quickly with our Senior Helm, Tom, in charge. Once on scene they went ashore and made an assessment and, after consulting with the RSPCA through Portland Coastguard, decided to guide the animal onto safe ground then leave it to it's own devices.

The boat arrived back just as it was gloaming so the photos I'm afraid are dreadful. Still, perhaps they capture something of a late evening recovery at springtime? For better photos have a look at Julian Sawyer's blog for something much better.

There is a fair old breeze blowing into the bay so it in fact looked quite bleak and uninviting out there.

Start of the season?

So now that the clocks have gone forward I consider that the season has started. Last night was our first Wednesday exercise of the year since time was advanced and for the first time in a long time we launched in the light.

To watch us there were even a few hardy souls braving the bracing wind to see us make our splash. I just hope they got a better photo of us than we got of them.

And it was a good 'real-time' exercise where Rob put the crew onboard (and the ILB) through their paces with some simple but realistic scenarios. Mostly it went according to plan!

What didn't though was our post exercise pint and a sing song in the Red Lion. Once we'd got comfortable and begun to sing a few tunes (assisted this time by Robin, and Mike and Jim Etherington) our pagers sounded to spoil our fun...typical. So the back bar cleared quickly and soon we were heading out to offer our assistance.

It was a fairly typical shout, indeed, save for geography identical to the last. A yacht with engine and various other gear failures was struggling to make headway 4 miles to the East of the bay. Once on scene we rigged a tow and decided, because of the forecast winds, to take her into Poole. All went smoothly despite some difficulty of manoeuvring a 15 metre yacht alongside a 12 metre lifeboat. Nevertheless, she was soon secure alongside the quay and we made our way back to the boathouse to be ready for further service by 3am.

Think of those crew who had to be up for work this morning...

Stretched ILB

For some reason my waterproof camera was not behaving last night and the flash kept on deciding not to work. Consequently some of the photos were slightly odd. That said, I quite liked this one of the ILB launching. It looks fast and colourful and somehow exciting.

We've still got 'Fishermen's Friend' at the moment. Dave nipped over to Poole to trial our boat last week and found it still losing coolant from the engine. Unfortunately it is now going to have to have the cylinder head removed so it will be some time longer before we get her back.

The ILB crew were having some troubles last night too with them finding it hard to select gears on the engine. When this was investigated, it was hard to pinpoint the problem, thought it was narrowed down to the gearbox rather than the linkage. The Coastguard were informed and we were briefly off-service while a replacement gearbox was dispatched from Poole and fitted by Kev.

Hood off and lower leg removed the ILB looked strangely impotent.

Extras

Although the ILB requires a crew of 3, during the winter months or when the sea is a bit rougher, we tend to get an extra couple of crew kitted up prior to launching. These extras can be a big help with launching by pushing the trolley into the sea, helping crew into the boat if need be and then of course recovering the trolley once the boat has gone. It's also 'Sods Law' that if only 3 crew get kit on, then one of them will tear a drysuit seal or have another similar incident so preventing them from getting on to the boat thus increasing the time it takes to launch.

Warming up

If at all possible, on cold lumpy days, we try to run the ILB engine for a few minutes to get it warmed up before launching. This gives the helmsman and crew some confidence that when the boat does hit the water and goes beyond the point of no return, that power will be there when it's needed.

Of course, it's not that our outboards are un-reliable, it's just that outboards will be outboards sometimes and why take a chance when you have an alternative?!

Our system is not complex. Indeed it is nothing more sophisticated than a length of hose with flush mutts attached.

Once the crew and helmsman are happy that all is ready and the engine warmed, the mutts are removed and the boat launched.

And when the first wave breaks over the bow...off she goes in a shower of spume and spray.

First exercise of the year

So, this morning heralded the first exercise of the New Year and decade. Good bye 'noughties' and hello 'teenies'!

Once we had all arrived at the boathouse it rapidly became clear that the easterly wind was going to make recovering the Mersey unnecessarily hazardous so it was decided to launch only the ILB. Dressed up warm in their drysuits and woolly bears the lads headed out without a backward glance.

As ever, they achieved much and looked very purposeful and professional out there in the bay on their own. When others are heading out the RNLI head out...

EffSeaBeeToo

The exercise was a cold one last night but this did not prevent us from being very productive. We had a couple of observers along for the trip, one whom we already knew from last month. Pretty frequently we are asked to take people out to sea with us in order to help them become acquainted with what lifeboat crews do in real life. Often they are new staff who have joined the institution and are working in an area where they are required to either talk with authority about what we do, or need to be able to empathise with the job that we do and the conditions that we work in. In Geraldine's case it's undoubtedly a bit of both.

Unfortunately on this occasion I had little chance to chat with Geraldine and John because no sooner had we launched and got started on our exercise than we sighted a flare and went to investigate, (don't worry Gloria...all part of the exercise)!

Coming alongside what appeared to be another lifeboat it quickly became apparent that they had had some sort of dramatic incident and required urgent assistance. I went aboard initially to assess how many casualties there were. As is often the case in these scenarios, there was a man overboard (immediately ties up one boat searching and limits options for casualty evacuation). There was also a seriously injured man who had fallen through a hatch (although it was difficult to access him initially and make a full assessment, the mechanism of injury led me to expect a spinal injury, possibly a break and likely internal injuries). There was the usual 'red-herring' of someone panicking with sea-sickness and a quiet one who appeared shocked. Plenty to keep us busy!

I made the decision to act as the comms person and requested as many first aiders as were available to come and deal with the casualties. Very soon Kev, John, Daz and Nick were onboard and completing their full assessments on the casualties. Not surprisingly the fellow who had fallen began to deteriorate with increasing 'Capillary refill' and reducing breathing rate. Quite rightly Kev and John assessed him as having an internal bleed and flagged him up a priority 1 for immediate evacuation.

In a very short space of time the man-overboard had been found, all casualties dealt with and the stricken vessel taken in tow back to the station. After a quick de-brief and not so quick crew-meeting it was time for a pint in the Red Lion then home to bed.

All good.

Sunny spells

It seems like the rain hasn't stopped for months. My daily drive to work involves passing several rivers and each has been beyond the bounds of it's banks for months now. Despite this, Sunday morning heralded a brief moment of sunshine amongst the dark clouds, and both the ILB and one of the rowing club gigs took advantage of it. Needless to say the rain soon returned and it was situation normal. Don't you just love this global warming?

November rain

So there was me thinking that the rain might have disappeared with November. Fat chance, today, down our way has been as wet as ever, perhaps even more so.

Suffering with a cold I decided to stay ashore and do some training in the boathouse with some of our newer crewmembers.

After both boats had gone their seperate ways it was time to head up to the crewroom to begin the exercise.

The ALB put a float into the water at the start of their exercise and then relayed it's position to us for us to work out an estimated position for them to return to in 1 hour in order to search and then hopefully find the 'casualty'.

We spent about an hour running through some simple chartwork then Rob and I worked through a rapid response search pattern with the lads and came up with our Estimated position. To be honest we are both into this sort of thing and enjoyed the process a great deal. Ultimately we came up with two possible positions, one using the factual information that we had...the other adding our own local knowledge to this. Funnily enough our own 'local knowledge' position was much closer to the actual position in which it was found.

In any case, we were all satisfied that our worked example would have stood a very high chance of finding the casualty (though perhaps the incredibly severe rain might have hindered us), so job done.

And when your fears subside
And shadows still remain, ohhh yeahhh
I know that you can love me
When there's no one left to blame
So never mind the darkness
We still can find a way
'Cause nothin' lasts forever
Even cold November rain
(November Rain - Guns N'Roses)

There and back

So there was a quick shout this afternoon to head over to the other side of the bay to check on a kayak which had been reported to be in difficulty. As is quite often the case, it turned out that the boat wasn't actually in difficulty but had apparently been practising self-rescue techniques!

Still, it was a pleasant afternoon so most of us were perfectly happy to spend an hour on the slipway watching things happen and catching up on each others news.

Of course Sam was pleased to have got another shout under her belt so all was not wasted.

Quickie

The ILB was out for a quick shout this afternoon. I was stuck at home roasting marshmallows over and open fire while on my own with the girls. Hence I have few details about the shout just now. All I do know is that the person aboard the casualty vessel was well equipped and recognised that he needed help so fired a flare to bring attention to his plight. While I'm not sure 'exactly' who was aboard the jetski, I do suspect that someone might be buying a few beers after the exercise tonight!

(Photo: Swanage Lifeboat photo archive)

Taking it easy...

Last night's exercise was intended to be a quiet one so that the crew could meet together and plan in detail some of the logistics of lifeboat week. Both boats went to sea but not for a heavy-weight exercise...more an exercise in getting wet and checking that everything was as it should be on the ILB.

On completion we had an informal meeting and Martin had the excellent idea of providing a BBQ with steak baguettes and a beer or two. Altogether a great idea and as you can imagine...highly popular with the crew!

Regular blog reader, Simon Dubbin and his lovely family are down staying for a week or two in one of the Coastguard cottages. It's great to see them again and to be reminded that the Swanage Lifeboat family stretches much further than we often realise. I for one am constantly amazed by the extraordinary support that we get from folk. Humbling...

Back to base...

As we returned from yesterday's shout, those crew who had been left behind were finishing swapping over our own ILB which had just returned from it's refit.

After being offloaded from the truck into the water, it was motored round to our slipway, before being expertly driven back onto it's trolley by Tom in a virtuoso display of helmsmanship. Tonight it was taken to sea for a sea trial and by all accounts it performed very well.

Welcome back Jack!

By the way Gav, 'Stoical' is defined by Wikipedia as: Enduring pain and hardship without showing feeling or complaint. It stems from the Greek school of philosophy founded by Zeno who said; "a Stoic achieves happiness by submission to destiny."

More new winch wire

Dave has been busy once more. He's just sent us all an e-mail to let us know that the ILB winch has just been fitted with a dynex rope the similar (but not purple & a lot smaller) to the ALB one. It is a lot more costly than the old steel ones but hopefully will last a long time as it won't corrode when it gets wet. Also it won't kink and should be a lot nicer to handle. It is also slightly longer which should help with low water recovery.

(Photo: Dave)

Both boats

Due to a rather busy day yesterday I failed to mention yesterday that both boats were busy on Wednesday afternoon with another shout. This time it was a yacht which had gone aground in slight seas just to the west of Chapman's Pool. Luckily for them it was a rising tide so the merest of pulls from the ILB soon brought them off into deeper water. Once there the bilges were checked by the skipper for water ingress before the vessel was declared fit to proceed on her passage to Weymouth. Once they were on their way both boats headed back to station. Job done.

One of the great things about shouts like this during the working week is that there are always crew out of town so lots of our less experienced crew get a shout. Good for experience and good for moral.

Busy exercise (and sorry for the delay!)

Right...I'm feeling a little better now so here are a few more details from the weekend exercise.

In a sense Sunday's exercise was a big one for me. Since becoming one of the Stations Deputy Second Coxswains a number of years ago I have spent a lot of time acting as Second Coxswain for the other three (Martin, Rob and Dave) but very little time taking complete command of the lifeboat as Coxswain. So on Sunday I took the boat out for an exercise with my own crew...the sort of crew I would have is Martin, Rob and Dave were absent.

My intention was to give the engines a run, get Gav doing a little navigating and spend a bit of time running Paul E and Kev through a couple of seamanship evolutions with them acting as my Second Coxswains. Of course it didn't turn out like that. Events and colleagues conspired to scupper my plan.


Midway through out little Navigation exercise I overheard Deasy on the ILB talking to Portland about a kayaker which they had spotted in difficulty. It was agreed that they would take the kayaker onboard and head back towards Swanage along with his Kayak. After a brief discussion it was agreed that we would head off to meet them and take either the kayak or the Kayaker onboard. As it turned out we did both as the fellow was a bit cold from his swim.


Having practised this sort of thing last year the recovery of the kayak went smoothly and it was soon emptied of water. In short order it was stowed on the side deck and we returned to the slipway to land both the vessel and the casualty.


We then headed out to continue our exercise. And it was a busy day for kayakers in the bay. This bunch seemed well organised and had the added benefit of safety in numbers.


No sooner had we resumed our planned exercise than we had a 'For Exercise' shout from Portland Coastguard. They had had a report of an explosion on a fishing vessel 1/2 a mile SE of Peveril point. Of course we made best speed towards the casualty and dealt with what we found (burnt crewman, one crewman missing presumed overboard and a disabled boat). Kev and James boarded the boat to administer first aid. We did a quick search and found the casualty in the water, we then brought the casualty onboard the ALB before rigging up a tow to bring the casualty vessel home.

And it mostly went well and smoothly. So...a big thanks to Rob and Dave for arranging that little beauty for us!