The Rose Bowl

So last night was our Christmas party. I'm afraid the whole experience is still proving a little painful so I will write more in the morning. However, I would like to announce that this year John Deere presented the Rose Bowl (given annually to the crewmember having performed the most memorable act during the year) to Dan. Due to the precise circumstances of the act I can't disclose exactly what he won it for. Nevertheless, congratulations Dan...a richly deserved award!

(Thanks to Sophie Atkinson for the photo)

21 not out

Last night's exercise was a good one. Plenty of crew turned out, perhaps it was just curiosity and wanting to meet Adrian Carey our new inspector. Anyway, it was good to see almost everyone there. It was a busy night too. The ILB had it's inspection then went to sea for a further exercise. The ALB had it's exercise and was put through the whole fire, flood and pestilence routine. Meanwhile back in the boathouse Steve was busy giving a masterclass on various aspects of navigation and chartwork. Good busy stuff.



Afterwards Adrian introduced himself to those who hadn't been afloat, gave a short de-brief and then suggested that we all retire to the Ship for a chance to reflect upon the evening's activities.



Of course he also wanted us to turn up in the pub so that we could have a chance to present Jon Deare, our Head Launcher and Winchman, with his badge for 20 years of service to the RNLI. In actual fact he has now done 21 years service and we hope that he will make it at least to 25 if not a little further. As a bit of background, Jon is at the moment our oldest serving crewmember and as such commands a great deal of respect amongst all of the crew. A man of relatively few words he is able to keep the crew in order whilst the boat is away with little more than an arch of an eyebrow or a couple of well chosen words. He also presents on an annual basis the crew 'Rosebowl'. This was purchased in memory of his father with the un-drunk remains of his estate and is presented to the crewmember who has that year made the greatest single contribution (this could be an act of selflessness, bravery, comedy or idiocy). Jon, thanks for all you do...it's great to have you around.



So that was it. A good evening with much achieved. The inspection continues today with Dave being subjected to scrutiny ashore in the boathouse. Good luck!

Windy start

Well, it would seem that all the anticipated visitors to Swanage this Easter weekend have well and truly arrived. As I walked the dog this morning I watched crowds of people hurrying down to the town for morning teashop visits, breakfasts in cafe's and pottering time in the shops.

I also bumped into the lovely Kim and Becky, out with Ben (Gav's dog) - they too were battling with the strong windy gusts which seem to have arrived with the crowds.

It's another day for fundraising with the Swanage Sea Rowing Club. John Deas has got the crew organized to come into town this afternoon for a rowing competition against the fire brigade - winners get a crate of beer... should be a good turn out then!

Pics to follow later........

With a hop and a skip and a twirl

So yesterday was our final fling of the year; the social event of the season in Swanage. It was of course the Lifeboat Christmas party. This year we decided that we would have a real blow out. We took over the whole of the Ship Inn for the evening. Nathan's crew put on a spectacular event which suited the mood perfectly. Greeted by Champagne, Bucks Fizz and Kir Royale the Ship was soon awash with friends and buzzing with happy chat.The crew of course looked impressively smart in their DJs and best bib and tucker. They were there almost to a man.Wives and Girlfriends were there too of course, as were many of our friends from town who give us so much assistance throughout the year.Martin was looking resplendent in his retro 70's fancy dress and Paul was cutting a fine dash in his impressive 'Tie Your Own' bow tie.The DLAs held court in the corner, an Oasis of sophistication and calm amidst the social storm of the crew.And then the dancing began! Music was provided by local band 'Black Sheep'. Led by Titch they describe themselves as Cask Conditioned Celtic Rock. I don't know about that but they were certainly superb and brought the party to life.Rapidly the dancing became more enthusiastic and energetic. With their usual passion for making complete idiots of themselves all of the crew took part. Ultimately it became positively lethal with bodies flying around and egos ruined.One thing is certain, they are no wallflowers!During a lull in the dancing Jon stood up (at least we think he did) and made his traditional speech prior to handing out our Rose Bowl. This is awarded each year to the crewmember who has made the biggest contribution to the lifeboat season; either due to bravery, foolery or a job well done. Steve Williams nearly won it for his impressive 3 mile sternboard. The ILB crew came close for having to deal with the aftermath of a rather grizzly suicide. But in the end Jon awarded it to Terry Pond for his huge contribution over the years. Well done Terry. We also took a moment to honour and remember Walt Bishop, three cheers and a gulp of a pint seemed appropriate.And then on with the dancing! The band even became unplugged at one point and roamed the floor as they continued to play jigs.And so! A great night was had by all. I really mean that too. It was superb. Thanks to everyone who contributed and helped to organise it.

By the way, you may notice the lack of hideous drunken shots here. I took many but thought I might reserve these for Facebook?

Summer's here at last

It's been one of those days. Hot, sunny and very busy on the water. Not surprisingly everyone had the same idea. Not just the general public but the crew too. Quite unplanned I decided on a trip in the boat to Chapman's Pool this afternoon and found myself there at the same time as two boat loads of our crew. We were greeted on the beach by Dave who announced that the rest of them (Matt, Jon, and Becky) were along the beach by the water fall having a mud fight.......and they were. Look carefully at the picture and you can see the speech bubble above little Eve's head. It reads, 'it turns out Daddy was wrong.........behaving like an idiot IS OK after all'.

Bank Holiday

It has been a busy bank holiday for lifeboat stations in the South West with launches at Exmouth, Torbay and St Ives to name but a few. The weather in Swanage has been rather wild, talking to the a few of the crew I know that they have been thinking about the changing weather and the restlessness of the sea. Some of the crew have taken the opportunity to go away for the bank holiday, those of us that are left are trying to keep as available as possible to ensure that that there are enough of us to man the boats, should we get the call.

Paul, Skid, Steve, Kevin, Tom, Gav, Dan and John Deas are all starting a two week radar and navigation course tonight which will take place in Swanage in one of the RNLI's mobile training units. The course is fairly intense and consists of seven three hour training sessions, but is an essential part of their crew training. We wish them luck!

Dead Fred!

Our casualty last night was not feeling too well. In fact, by the time we arrived he was utterly lifeless. Wedged among the rocks access was going to be hard. Dave, Coxswain for the evening, chose to use a breaches bouy to recover him. Nick and Jo set this up under my supervision having first anchored.Paul E rowed the x-boat in to the coast. This is harder than it looks due to the tide and the drag from the ropes. Nevertheless he achieved it and soon had the casualty in the bouy.Meanwhile Dave, Jon and Jo advised from the Mersey on how to achieve the rescue.........left a bit, right a bit etc etc!And before long he was alongside and being recovered on board. Sadly our station Dummy, 'Dead Fred', did not survive his ordeal...........Still, I don't think he suffered too much!

Mechanical Monday

Each Monday evening all of our crew who are trained as mechanics on either the ILB or the ALB spend a few hours at the Boathouse working through some planned or routine maintenance. This involves pumping up the ILB, ensuring the fuel tanks are topped off, cleaning, repairing and of course, doing any jobs which Dave is not able to complete during the week due to only having two pairs of hands. Last night was especially busy as D651, the trials ILB, had also been out to sea.Here the ILB mechanics are busy fettling. Jon is lubing the engine and changing the fuel filter, Becky checks the first aid kit, Paul B and Kev are sorting the ropes in stowages and Oli is checking the Oxygen bottle and masks.Meanwhile on the Mersey Dave and Paul E have found a defect from the re-fit, one of the engine room bilge sensors has fallen apart due to a cracked length of pipe. Not a show stopper as there are several more bilge sensors in the space but still needs sorting soon.

Afterwards it was a quick pint and pack of crisps in the East bar.........

Brush strokes

Lifeboat crew are practical people......one wouldn't necessarily expect them to have a great deal of artistic talent, however, last year we proved that this was not the case. Local artists Nina Camplin and Antonia Phillips (who work under the name of 'Shocked Custard') helped us to produce a total of three paintings of lifeboat scenes from the year. Each one was a collaborative effort by many of the crew. On completion they were auctioned to raise funds for the station. The one here depicts Kev and Paul engaged in a search using the 'x-boat' and was mainly done by Gav, Jon, Dave, Myself and Becky. It was of course great fun and raised a surprising amount of money. Naturally we will try to do this again this year.......perhaps we could auction one on here? Comments??

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!

We band of brothers.

Yesterday evening was the first 'dry' exercise that I have taken. The idea is that though most of the training we do necessarily happens at sea, some can be better achieved ashore in the boathouse. Becky, Nick and mark are all newish crew members, along with Tom we went over responsibilities for keeping watch at sea and how to properly use the watchkeeping equipment (Binos, night-sight, search lights, compass and radar). Obviously this was all broad brush stuff but sometimes even the obvious needs to be pointed out. We then did some dry runs through on how to rig up tows and how to deploy and recover the anchor. After a bit of practise throwing the heaving lines (Becky, she who makes everything look effortless, was scarily accurate) it was time to repair to the pub for a de-brief.

And that's the funny thing. There we were, a dozen or so young fit friends in our usual pub, the England football match was on, so what did we do? Naturally we left and went to another pub. One without a telly so we could chat about the important things in life (like boats, holidays, mountainbiking and having fun). We all agreed, life should be spent living not watching football on tv. And gradually we all sloped of home leaving just a hard core, Jon, Steve, myself and the awesome Becky. Happy to chat and plan the summer ahead.

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother;
(William Shakespeare)

Man in a rubber suit

Once a crewmember reaches the ripe old age of 45 they are no longer eligible to go to sea on the ILB (because it places a lot of strain on your body). However, there are some crewmembers (Nos. 1-6) who are the core of the ALB crew and therefor, regardless of their age only train on the ALB. Nevertheless, some of them, myself included, are in fact young enough to go out on the ILB. Occasionally, very occasionally, they go out and train on the ILB to keep their hands in just in case the situation arises where they have to make up numbers (this happens just a couple of times a year). On Wednesday Robert, our Second Coxswain, donned a drysuit and put to sea in the 'Jack Cleare'. Now this is momentous, not only because there are many on the crew who have never seen Rob in the ILB but also because he borrowed Jon Deas' drysuit..........and it fitted, with room to spare!