Wish you were here...

Sadly, due to having to eke a living working out of town, I now miss more shouts than I like. Truth be told, many of them are not terribly exciting and, ultimately I don't lose much sleep over them. However, every now and then one comes along which I am gutted to have missed. Friday's shout was one such...

Sat at my desk marking books, the first I knew was that I got a text to say the boat had launched. Logging into MarineTraffic.com I was able to watch the track of the lifeboat in (almost) real time. Curiously they seemed to leave the end of the slipway and head directly to Poole from the end of the slip, seemingly without doing anything much on the way...odd.

Later the story unfolded. A story of rescuing one of our own. Of course, nothing gives us greater pleasure that rescuing one of our own...does it Rob?!

The full story can be read here....

How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl,
Year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found
The same old fears.
Wish you were here.
(Pink Floyd)

Looking back

It has been a good year and much has happened in a short period of time. This photo of the Mersey launching in early January shows us having 'knocked out' from inside the boathouse. Look closely at the slip and you can see that this was prior to Dave replacing the old rollers with the new plastic ones. About a month later and Dave was fully in the swing of fitting the new ones all the way down the slip. And a huge improvement it has been too.

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.

MOB

Falling overboard is never a nice thing to do.

When you are 6 miles out to sea, sailing two handed and on a Gaff rigged cutter with huge amounts of rope, sail and rigging it's even worse.

The couple we went to assist last night were in just this situation. Anticipating a rising wind the skipper planned ahead and began to rig reefing lines on the booom to take in more sail prior to night-fall. One slightly larger than normal wave, a wet deck and a slip followed. Luckily he was wearing his lifeline so didn't get left behind the rapidly sailing yacht. Luckily his wife was efficient, capable and clear thinking.

She tried to help him onboard, this didn't work. She tied him alongside and sent a 'PanPan'. Soon every vessel in the area was on it's way, rescue 106 and us too. As we arrived on scene we heard the lady talking to rescue 106. There was little they could do with him strapped alongside so they suggested that she could cut him adrift and they could pick him out of the water. She considered this and suggested that as he was OK perhaps it would be best to wait for us!

Once on scene we put two crew onboard to asses the situation. Without further ado Gav and I hoisted the fellow onboard and began to asses his condition. Despite having been in the water for near to 45 minutes he seemed remarkably well. However he did have a head injury so we decided that the best course of action would be to get him onto the lifeboat and lift him off there to be taken to hospital. After a couple of runs in by the Mersey (and a slight collision) it was decided that a transfer was perhaps too risky given the relatively stable condition of the casualty.

We re-assessed the situation and decided to continue to sail the boat towards Poole, dry the casualty, get him warm and continue to monitor his condition. Before long we were enjoying a spanking sail in a lovely boat in superb conditions. Arriving in Poole was interesting as it was Thursday fireworks night and very busy on the marina and harbour. Luckily the lads from Poole lifeboat were in the boathouse so they cleared a bit of space for us and we soon had the boat alongside. An ambulance was waiting the check over the casualty and it seems as though he was fine thankfully.

A cup of coffee followed then home to bed...

(Apologies for the photo, there should be better on the station website)

Update:

Two rather complumentary quotes from the MCA...

Andy Jenkin, Watch Manager at Portland Coastguard said

"The man's wife deserves a great deal of praise for the calm way in
which she dealt with the emergency on their beautifully maintained
boat. They are clearly an experienced, competent couple and
throughout this rather frightening experience they maintained a
dialogue between the two of them on what they would do next. Harness
lines, radio, lifejackets, her competency using the radio, and the
calm way information was relayed. We couldn't ask for more from an
albeit surprised customer of the United Kingdom's search and rescue
services!

"Our grateful thanks are also due to the Swanage RNLI lifeboat crew
for the extremely professional and sympathetic way they handled this
very unusual incident."

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...

Night Bag

During the winter months there is a higher chance of a callout in the dark (due to it being dark most of our 24hrs!), for the Mersey this is no problem since it already has all equipment on board.  However, for the D-class, space is at a premium and certain items simply have to be added as required.

This is where our night bag comes in.  The job of shore crew and anyone else to hand at the boathouse when responding to a shout, is to get the ILB ready to launch as quickly as possible.  When you are likely to be out in the dark, the night bag is packed - this includes two handheld spotlights, two battery packs (these are on permanent mains charge) and two night sights (James Bond style gadgets which work extremely well).  Also in the picture is the handheld radio, which is always put on board anyway but is helpful to grab whilst packing the bag in-case you forget later.   

The night bag is then attached to the clips on the sides of two other storage bags on the boat, seen in this picture.

 

Life's a drag or, on the pull.

I've previously said somewhere that one of the most thankless jobs on the crew is the shorecrew role. Imagine.......your pager goes off.......you race to the boathouse (obviously observing all speed limits and road traffic laws on the way) then wait to be picked to crew one of the boats. If you aren't you are left with a skin full of adrenaline and little to do by way of using it up. Sometimes those left behind slip off home because they have other important things to do. Others hang around and find ways of amusing themselves until the boat returns. If it's a long shout this can be a pretty dull wait.

Once we have a rough idea of when the boat will return then there are a few jobs to be done in preparation..........one is to pull the winch cable to the bottom of the slip, link up the haul up span and coil the heaving rope. Pulling the cable down is a pretty heavy job and, it gets harder the further down the slip you go (as you are pulling more cable).

How Long is a Piece of String?

No one ever knows how long a shout is going to last. When you step on that boat you could be out there for ten minutes or you could be out there for hours. One of the longest shouts we've had lasted fourteen and a half hours, this was on the Mersey, we had been called out for two young boys who had been swept into the sea on a stormy night. Searches are very tough on the crew as they require maximum concentration, often over long periods of time. When undertaking a search, the aim is to swap around regularly to keep people on the ball, however this isn't always practical.

A few delectable treats are kept on the boat for people to tuck into when they are flagging, however the choice is limited, we have hot cans and cuppa soups....................

Or if you know where to look, Dave has a secret stash of chocolate!

Shh, don't tell anyone......

I hardly dare to say this, we all know what's going to happen. Last night at about 1700, a small crew boarded Pinky and turned her bow towards Poole. The Repairs to the Robert Charles Brown are complete and the low water slipway trials were a success. Like I say, I hardly dare mention it but I do have a feeling that this time she is here to stay. It seems a shame really, in a way Pinky was beginning to feel quite comfortable and familiar, it's such a long time since we've had RCB I suspect she is now going to feel all wrong!

Nuff said..........

I believe that this says it all!

End of an era?

Each summer during lifeboat week, Roger, the current owner of our last ALB, the J. Reginald Corah has returned her to Swanage and conducted pleasure trips around the bay in her for the RNLI's benefit. He has in many ways become a key part of our weeks celebrations. Sadly, due to Roger's ill health he will probably not bring her this year as she is on the market. We hope she finds a sympathetic and caring new owner and perhaps returns again to Swanage?Here Swanage lifeboats past and present perform for the crowds. Stormy Stan can be seen on the bow!And relax, the end of a hard day?