ILB introductory course

One of the first courses any new crew member will take part in is the Introductory course for ILB crew at Poole. It lasts a week and covers all of the basics such as how to perform each of the expected tasks, how to handle the boat and how to keep yourself safe.Nick went on his course last week and one of the first things he found himself doing as swimming in the 'environmental pool' along with a capsized lifeboat.

One of the great things about a residential course as a crewmember is that it allows a first glimpse at the wider RNLI family. Suddenly you realise that Swanage is not the centre of the RNLI world and how we do things so not the only way!

Part of the capsize drill involves swimming under the capsized boat. Often this can be a challenging ordeal for new crew.

The skill in handling a lifeboat underway is not so much how to drive the thing through waves at high speed, rather, it is how to drive it safely at slow speed while close to other vessels. This is taught well.

New crew also learn how to tow other vessels. Often these are appreciably larger than the vessel doing the towing.

Of course the time spent in the bar is not time wasted...it forms an essential part of the bonding experience and caters for different leaning styles.

It's also fun to see so many lifeboats out on the water at any one time.

So Nick, you've passed and are surely wiser and perhaps more importantly, more useful to us as a result. Well done!

Ballard Point

Lies directly to the north of our Lifeboat station. At about 7.40 last night a rambler fell a small distance onto the rocks there and fell unconscious. The Coastguard rescue team were sent to locate him and this they did with the assistance of the Swanage Sea Rowing Club gig which was over there a the time. It was decided that a lifeboat would be of assistance so we were paged and arrived on-scene pretty quickly. First Aid was rendered and the patient prepared for a Helicopter lift. Once aboard the helicopter he was taken directly to Dorchester A&E where he had a brain scan and was declared fine.

Crew on the ILB in this occasion were Kev, Dan and Oli. It was reported in the Bournemouth Echo this morning.

Update

Liz is back from her bike ride with two of the Lifeboat crew (John and Darren) and has news of the shout. Apparently someone had fallen from the cliffs and needed evacuating. I understand that Rescue Helicopter 106 got there first so airlifted the casualty. Full details in the morning.

Thanks to MarkR for his thoughts

Good night!

Launch ILB

It's seventeen minutes past eight and our pagers have just gone off. The message says 'Launch ILB'. Not a shout for me and anyway, I'm home alone with the kids so can't respond. In any case, it's mechanics night down at the boathouse so the boat will be in the water in minutes. I'll update as soon as I know what's happening.

Looking forward

So this is Coastguard Rescue Helicopter 106.

A short time ago it took over from 'Whiskey Bravo' as our local rescue helicopter. It is run under contract (an interim contract until 2012) to the MCA by CHC Scotia. It is a Westland AW 139 Helicopter and can apparently fly further and faster than it's predecessor (it has a range of over 1000km, a 5+ hour endurance and a top speed of 165 knots).

It has now got it's first few rescues under it's belt and is starting to spend time training with us lifeboat crews. Our first go will be during this Wednesdays exercise when we will spend some time training with it. I imagine that little will have changed...we steam roughly into the wind, they lower a crewman on a wire, he earths himself before landing onboard, he grabs his casualty and goes.

Sadly I won't be there as I have the usual end of term events to participate in at school. Never mind, only 4 more days until I'm free for the summer!!

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!

And this month we will

mainly be rescuing yachts. I've spoken before about how we seem to get clusters of similar casualties. So far this June 3/4 of our shouts have been to yachts. Encouragingly they have all been genuine problems which couldn't be sorted out without outside assistance. They have also all involved knowledgeable and capable skippers.

This mornings shout was to a yacht 18 miles SE of Anvil Point. He had become tangled up with a line attached to some fishing gear and was effectively anchored to the sea bed. He had the presence of mind to hoist a ball in his rigging denoting that he was at anchor. The obvious thing to do but seldom done.

(photo thanks to the boat camera)

Lucky

A yacht's mast requires a network of wires to keep it vertical. If one of these wires is lost the mast tends to fall over. We've seen this lots of time. With presence of mind and quick reactions this can be avoided by turning the yacht so that the missing wire or 'stay' is on the downwind side of the mast. The strain will then be taken by other wires.

Yesterday's shout involved just this situation. Just after 2 in the afternoon the crew were paged to assist a yacht with rigging failure 10 miles to the south of St Aldhelm's Head. About 40 minutes later they were on scene and put two crew members onboard so as to help stabilise the rig and prepare for the passage back to Swanage. Luckily, with the prevailing wind direction, the wind was pushing the mast forwards and so the vessel could be sailed back to Swanage under Mainsail alone.

Once in Swanage the yacht was attached to the lifeboat mooring and the skipper was re-united with his wife.

Job done...

With my own two hands

So, why do you rarely see lifeboat crew wearing gloves?

Well, you do sometimes, just not often. Indeed we are issued with two kinds of gloves:

Firstly the ILB crew are issued with neoprene gloves (diving style). During the winter these can be a real lifesaver. It is likely that when in the ILB a crewmembers hands will be continually wet, this fact combined with wind chill can rapidly cool a pair of hands to the point where they are completely numb. However, with these gloves on (they are about 5mm thick) it is pretty much impossible to feel anything and all manual dexterity is lost. Therefor it is standard practise to remove them as soon as the crew arrive on scene. Makes perfect sense.

The other type of gloves we are issued with are the blue latex surgical type gloves which ambulance crews are provided with. Many crew carry a couple of pairs of these in the pockets of their foul weather gear. It is standard procedure to don a couple of pairs of these prior to arriving at any incident where there is likely to be a requirement for first aid. Naturally they are disposable!

I can change the world
With my own two hands
Make it a better place
With my own two hands
Make it a kinder place
With my own two hands
With my own
With my own two hands
I can make peace on earth
With my own two hands
I can clean up the earth
With my own two hands
I can reach out to you
With my own two hands
With my own
With my own two hands
I'm going to make it a brighter place
With my own two hands
I'm going to make it a safer place
With my own two hands
I'm going to help the human race
With my own two hands
With my own
With my own two hands
I can hold you
With my own two hands
I can comfort you
With my own two hands
But you've got to use
Use your own two hands
Use your own
Use your own two hands
With our own
With our own two hands
With my own
With my own two hands
(Jack Johnson)

When the training pays off

Yesterday afternoon (while I was still at work) the ALB was launched to assist a lady who's husband had collapsed on the foredeck of their catamaran near Anvil point. The new Coastguard Rescue Helicopter 106 was also scrambled to assist. In very short order both were on scene and a rapid assessment of the casualty took place. He was unconscious and not breathing so CPR was begun while the Helo prepared to evacuate him as quickly as possible to hospital. Once he was on his way our crew stayed aboard the yacht which was taken to Swanage and put onto the lifeboat mooring. Once this was done the lady was brought ashore and taken by the coastguard to Poole hospital to be with her husband. Our thoughts are with them both.

It turns out

it wasn't such a quiet weekend after all for our local 'Coasties':

swanagecoastguard.blogspot

bournemouthecho

Our thoughts are with the poor fellow in the 4x4.

Slow speed transfer

Despite glorious weather and loads of people out an about it was a quiet and safe weekend in Swanage (although it did sound as if the Coastguard were busy)..........so I'll tell you about some other stuff we do!

A slow speed transfer is a technique that, although being in some ways almost counter intuitive, we use to transfer people between the ILB and ALB while still moving forwards. If, when you bring the ILB alongside the ALB at slowish speeds, the tiller is pulled hard over when the hulls touch, it has the effect of pushing the bow of the ILB into the ALB and the two boats become locked together in a very stable position. People can then be safely transfered. Care needs to be taken when breaking away to avoid getting sucked under the bow as you turn out and drive forwards.

Quickie

Just as I pulled into the drive last night Jo ran down the road jesticulating wildly. Not that this is in itself an unusual occurance mind you! After a few moments I twigged that her pager had just gone off and that we had a shout on our hands.................in she jumped and we drove down to the boathouse.

Martin and Rob were both away so Dave took the boat and, due in part to the nature of the job we took a relatively in-experienced crew. We arrived on scene just off Anvil point about 5 minutes later to find a 35ft yacht with damaged rigging and engine failure. To compound his problems he had anchored and got his anchor stuck!

Matt and Kev jumped aboard and tried to free the anchor. This didn't work so we attached a tow rope and tried to pull the anchor free that way. This didn't work either so we cut his anchor rope, bouyed the end then towed him home to Swanage where we put him on the lifeboat mooring. No doubt he will soon be on his way and continuing with his journey.

We-eee-eeel....
You know you make me wanna (Shout!)
Kick my heels up and (Shout!)
Throw my hands up and (Shout!)
Throw my head back and (Shout!)
Come on now (Shout!)
(The Isley Brothers)

1st Aid update

Tonight we have an exercise. It will be shore based and Paul Savage is coming over to give us an update on our November 1st Aid course (required because the course content has changed slightly since our trial in November). We also have a crew meeting to deal with lifeboat week issues and job allocations! Time to keep a low profile I think...........

First 'proper' shout

At one minute to 11 yesterday young Ty began heading towards the boathouse for what was to become his first proper shout since joining the crew. At the time he didn't realise it. He probably imagined that once more he would be stood at the bottom of the stairs watching someone else get chosen. Not yesterday! Rob picked him and before he knew it he was on the way to Dancing Ledge to collect a broken down RIB. Not the most exciting of shouts but I know exactly how he must have felt. I wonder if he's still buzzing?

The good news of course is that there is an exercise on Wednesday and so he will an early opportunity to purchase us the customary pint!

A member of the public reported seeing a red flare........

and in fact it was me.

Stood on my deck last night taking in the fine view of this square rigger in the bay John Deas, Liz and I spotted what looked very definitely like a red flare. Indeed, it was followed by 2 more which also both looked like red flares. So I called the coastguard, told them what I'd seen, gave my position and a line of bearing to what we'd seen and left it in their hands. In all likelihood it was a prank but what else could I do. If you see what looks like a red flare out there you report it.......don't you? After all, it could be you out there in need of assistance!

Obviously I've heard nothing since so it could have been anything, or something. I wonder.

Home from Home

So on my trip up north last week I did my usual and visited any lifeboat stations which I happened to be passing. This first photo is North Berwick which is a charming seaside town on the southern side of the Firth of Forth. It has a tiny harbour but the ILB stationed here is launched from this boathouse, across the road and then down a slip onto the beach with a tractor. Unfortunately the boathouse was locked so I had no opportunity to look in.

Although the station was originally opened in 1860 it was closed in 1925. It was re-opened in 1967 when a 'D'class boat was stationed there. In 1991 the original boathouse was re-purchased by the RNLI and then extended to accommodate the tractor. Their ILB was one of the boats provided by Blue Peter from one of their appeals in 1993.



Further down the coast I popped in to visit the pretty town of St Abbs. There has been a lifeboat station here since 1911. The boathouse was built in 1915 and has since housed a variety of boats including rowing boats, an Oakley, a Waveney and 'D', 'C' and now a 'B' class. The boathouse is without doubt the dominant feature of the town and the harbour and provides an impressive view.



Further down the coast I stopped in Eyemouth but couldn't quite reach the station as I was somewhat trapped on the other side of the harbour. They operate a Trent class lifeboat which sits afloat next to their relatively new shore facility.

Let me be the one that you turn to
Someone you can rely on
Closer each day
Home and away
(Home and Away theme)

Change of scenery

Yesterday morning both boats went to sea for exercise. For a change I took the ILB to sea as Helmsman and took Ollie and Chad along with me. It is essential that I do this every now and then as there are odd occasions when I am required to take the ILB out on a shout.



Chad demonstrated to Ollie how the chart plotter works then Ollie set up a route for me to follow. Once we arrived 'on scene' Ollie then talked me through all of the stowages on the boat to remind me of what we carry on the ILB and where everything is stowed. He was particularly good at explaining each of the various uses of each piece of equipment. He then explained to me each of the ways of recovering a person from the water and demonstrated on me!

Chad then talked us through anchoring and veering in to the cliff, they briefly put me ashore then used the throwing line to recover me from the cliff.



We then briefly went to check on the puffins and took Paul off the ALB to come into on of the caves to get this photo.



On the way home we practised some slow speed transfers with the Mersey. This is a great technique which almost seems to lock the two boats together making transfers of casualties and personnel far simpler.

Then it was back to the boathouse for a washdown and debrief. A good mornings work, and I certainly now feel as if I know my way around the boat as well as I should. Thanks lads!

Another busy weekend

It all started on Friday with the ILB tasked to assist a motor boat which had suffered engine failure a couple of miles to the east. An easily sorted problem. Nothing heroic but still part of the service.

Yesterday heralded another shout to recover a kayak which had been spotted drifting by a passing yacht. These sort of shouts tend to have an edge to them on account of the fact that there may well have been a person on board. In this case it was pretty obviously just a scrappy old kayak which had been set adrift by pranksters. It was duly recovered by Gav, Chad and Mark in the ILB and returned to the boathouse. If it is not claimed it will probably join our small but treasured collection of rescued craft (it certainly won't find a place in my kayak fleet)!

All quiet

around here for a week I'm afraid. Nothing much has been going on in the lifeboating world and I've been away (I forgot to sort out a guest blogger). Any ideas where I was?

Whilst I was away The Telegraph ran an RNLI piece which included photos of the Steedens and our boat, it also had a quote from the blog which was a pleasant surprise. Kayak blogger Wenley was kind enough to give it a mention too......good man!

Dancing ledge

During the exercise on Wednesday we used the ILB to put some of the crew ashore at Dancing Ledge. This feature of our coast was carved out of the cliff by quarrying and is the largest of quarries along our patch. It is a great place for the ILB to practise landing and can in fact be landed upon due to its gently shelving slope.

It's also a generally fun place to be. There is a small swimming pool which was blasted from the rock ledge. At high tide it fills with fresh sea water and then warms during the day. Tom and Jo enjoyed a soak.

Chad found this small cave. It seemed to bring out his 'Hobbit' like qualities!

There's still a good deal of evidence of quarry work. Look at this photo and you can see where the rock has been shaped to give a smooth ride to the wheels of the carts carrying stone.

There are also lots of these square holes on the ledge. They were cut so that the wooden posts from which the whims (hoists or winders) were constructed could be fixed to the rock surface.

I completely forgot

to congratulate Matt on successfully passing his assesment as an emergency mechanic on the Mersey last time the inspector was with us.

He reminded me last night and looked genuinely hurt!

No offence intended Matt and here's a big up!!

What goes around comes around

Well that time of year is approaching again..........Lifeboat week! Yesterday Dave sent out a 25 page planning document to each of us. It contained details of each event, who is responsible for it, what has been booked, what needs doing etc etc.

Each year lifeboat week seems to grow and grow. This year there are some superb additions to the events lined up. These include a Shakespearian evening, Bingo and an open evening at the Boathouse. Of course all of the old favourites like raft racing, darts, sailing and gig racing, build a boat, stalls, cream teas, BBQ music bar and loads more are still there too. There really will be something for everyone so if you're at a loose end from the 10th to the 17th of August come to Swanage for some fun!

If you think you might be able to help please get in touch by e-mailing me or contacting the boathouse.

It's exercise night tonight and both boats will be going to sea, launching at 1900.

Nick here is off on holiday. He departed this morning to visit his brother in law in the USA. Safe trip Nick.

'Cause I'm leavin', on a jet plane,
Don't know when I'll be back again.
(John Denver)

I've no idea really

what this is all about but on Sunday we were asked to launch both boats so that we could take a photographer from the Telegraph newspaper to sea for some photos. He wanted to be taken out in the ILB so that he could get some photos of the ALB in action. It was actually a fairly blustery day so I should imagine he began to wonder whether he had done the right thing at times. Anyway, if you can bear to have a sly glance at the Telegraph this week you might spot a photo of our boys..............I just hope it will be worth the stigma of being caught furtively reading the Telegraph.

"I was delayed, I was way-laid
An emergency stop
I smelt the last ten seconds of life
I crashed down on the crossbar
And the pain was enough to make
A shy, bald, buddhist reflect
And plan a mass murder
Who said lied I'd to her?"
(The Smiths)

Lifeboat economy

One of the great things about the lifeboat crew is that it provides an informal economic network. Most of the crew have a skill or knowledge which they are only too happy to share with others on the crew. Recent examples of this are many:

Paul here came and chopped a tree down for us a couple of weekends ago (and I have to say I would have paid money to watch as it was fantastic). In return his bike is currently stored in my shed and he's using my bike maintenance facilities.

A couple of weeks ago Tom phoned for some late night legal advice from Liz my wife, in return we get an occasional supply of pot bait and crabs.

Last night Dave helped me to fix my outboard, in return he gained a wakeboarding tower for his Raider, I also managed to negotiate his help with re-wiring my boat.

Last year Gavin came and re-newed a bit of my staircase. His payment was a land rover bumper and winch!

Of course, given my profession there is a limit to the practical help I can give, however, it is surprising the number of conversations I have had over the years to re-assure and advise the parents on the crew about the educational needs of their offspring.

Luckily we all take the attitude that it is a case of 'what goes around comes around'.

Long may it last!

Nurdles:

are tiny (about 5mm diameter) plastic pellets. They're the raw materials of plastic production. They melt these down to make all kinds of things and are how plastics are transported in the pre-production stage due to them taking up little space but also being easy to handle.

Sadly they are also a major contributor to marine pollution and are particularly harmful to wildlife (they are ingested and block up the stomach, reducing the space for digestion resulting in starvation). They also have the ability to attract 'micro-pollutants which can then enter the food chain after ingestion by marine life. The main trouble with Nurdles is that they are almost impossible to clear from beaches or the sea. It has been estimated that they constitute somewhere in the region of 98% of all pollution on our beaches. Not surprisingly they take a very long time to bio-degrade.

These particular ones are presently on the beach at Kimmeridge and are suspected to have come from the Napoli when she shed containers further west in the channel. The effects of any disaster at sea can reverberate for many years............

Idiot proof

I was recently asked whether I ever dropped my camera. Well, the truth is yes, I've dropped it many times. However, thankfully the camera I use on the boat most of time is one of these, a Pentax Optio W20.

Now reviews have not always been kind about this camera, however, when you are using it in harsh conditions and want something you don't have to take much care of then this is the camera for you. Indeed, it is so good that the RNLI provides one to every lifeboat in the fleet. A good recommendation!

I'm sure someone will correct me on this but to my knowledge we've never broken one either (which is pretty much a first)!

In the words of.......

Bruce Lack, watch manager at Portland Coastguard: "Drink and stupidity played major parts in this incident with two young people in serious danger of losing their lives."

At about 3.30 on Sunday morning the crew were paged by Portland Coastguard and tasked to search for two young people who were thought to be in the water somewhere near Studland. In an apparently intoxicated state they had 'borrowed' a dinghy and taken to the sea with no means or propulsion or communication. People ashore could hear their cries but weren't sure exactly where they were.

Both boats launched rapidly and searched the area thoroughly. The ALB heard shouts and found the two casualties clinging to No.6 channel buoy. Their dinghy had overturned and they had been in the water for several hours. The ALB recovered them and then requested that an ambulance meet them at the Studland Ferry slipway on Sandbanks. While transporting the casualties to Sandbanks their condition deteriorated to the point where one of the casualties was losing consciousness. The two casualties were passed onto the ambulance and taken to Poole hospital where they were given the all clear and subsequently discharged into Police custody. They were later bailed.

I guess the moral of the story is................well, what do you think?

Out of the blue..........

came three shouts in one evening:

At about 7 o'clock we were paged by Portland to launch both boats to search for a young person who was missing on the cliffs near Anvil Point lighthouse. The Police and Coastguard were concerned that she was going to harm herself. Martin was otherwise engaged with his Grandson 'Jack' so Dave took the boat as Cox. Now these kind of searches generally come to nothing, however, we had a spate of them a year ago which all had fairly grisly conclusions so they are certainly not something we take lightly. Consequently I think most of us onboard were praying that we would have a futile half hours search then 'Rome Tango Bravo' (return to base) having found the 'victim' safe and sound. And that's how it worked out, the coastguards picked the young person up and calmed the situation. Phew!

In the course of the service the ILB completed two rapid inshore searches.

The ALB crew were extra vigilant and searching every crack and crevice.

Skid of course managed to attract every bit of spray which came over the bow.

Meanwhile Jo just looked plain scary for some reason?!

The next shout came sometime later at about 8.30pm (most of us had just got home). This time it was to a RIB which had suffered engine failure near Kimmeridge. Now this is a fairly quiet patch of coastline so naturally the Coastguard wanted them retrieved before nightfall. The ALB proceeded at best speed and once on scene towed the boat a short distance into the slipway in Kimmeridge.

And then..........just as the boat was finished being re-fueled, washed and put away for the night the pagers went off again at about 11.20pm! This time it was a local boat known to us who was having engine trouble. Luckily, just we were assembling another local boat (I think it was Tom) arrived and towed him home so we were stood down.

And so to bed......

Role reversal

Martin is our Cox. He steers our ship and guides our crew. It turns out this runs in the family. Not only was his father-in-law the Cox of Swanage Lifeboat. But his wife, Karina, is the very capable Cox of his Gig Crew (Swanage Sea Rowing Club - Super Veterans).

Lost in translation

In good old Bank Holiday fashion we were paged just before lunch today. The casualty was a French yacht at anchor in Swanage bay who had put out a Pan-Pan call. Unfortunately, though the Coastguard could talk to them, there was a problem with interpretation so no one was quite sure what the problem was! We decided to send the ILB and they were soon alongside and attending to what turned out to be a mechanical problem not really warranting a Pan-Pan.

The family and I had been just about to go on a trip out on the bikes so we cycled down to the boathouse instead. It is Eve's turn to have Brandy the bear to stay for the weekend so he got to join in our adventures!

The ILB was soon away with Steve, Gav and John Deas onboard.

Not the furthest shout we've ever conducted.......

Meanwhile back at the boathouse there was bit of a carnival feel in the air, lots of chatting, laughing and smiling.

TDI

Thanks to Dave Corben for this smashing photo of our launch yesterday. Those of you with sharp eyesight will notice that the slender fella on the starboard quarter is wearing a drysuit rather than the normal ALB foulweather gear. In fact it's not one of our crew but is Tom Mansell, one of our divisional inspection staff. It is normal that when the inspecting staff are on the station they accompany the crew on any shouts that occur. This allows them to get a more realistic insight into how we operate as a crew than by merely coming on exercise with us. Incidentally since Howard's promotion into the 'ivory tower' Tom has been promoted into Howie's old job (at least I think it was a promotion). Well done Sir!