Contradiction...

The front page of the RNLI website states that, the aim of the RNLI is to save lives at sea. An important part of fulfilling that aim is to educate folk in how to develop good sea sense and go to sea safely.

So once a year we put on the joint spectacle of the build a boat competition and the raft race!

Here you can see the outcome of the build a boat competition. Clearly seaworthyness was far from the minds of some of the competitors whilst they were constructing their craft.

Although our very own Gav who built this craft for Kim to paddle clearly had a few ideas about what might make for a speedy craft (and she won)!

This chap didn't last very long...of course, we could have predicted this and warned him, it just wouldn't have been so much fun!

Over at the raft race there was a huge turn out and some superb craft. The 'Red Devils' here were crewed by staff from the Purbeck View school and included the Coxn's wife.

Our boys had a go too...and won once more (always welcome 'cos we make them donate the prize money back to the RNLI)!



This typically flamboyant raft was paddled by Rowing Club Chairman George Wallis and his good wife Sue.

Well done to all who took part in a superb days worth of activities. Great fun was clearly had by all and plenty of funds were raised. Thanks.

When worlds collide

Two years ago we rescued a German yacht which had been dismasted in the channel. Naturally being so far from home I guessed it would be tricky for the skipper (Dieter) to sort the boat out so I put him in touch with a boatyard, rigger and sailmaker who would help him put her back together again.

Dieter has since kept in touch and has sailed his boat to Northern Spain. Once again my local contacts proved useful to him (my father lives in that neck of the woods). I've just heard from Dieter once more and found that he has met my father this summer and they have been out for Tapas together. What a small world!

John,

this year it was possible for us to sail from La Coruna where SWABEDOO stayed over the winter to Vigo. In Baiona we met your father and we passed a very nice evening. He told me that you have his email adress, and it would be fine, if you could send it to me. So I can inform him when I will stay again in this beautiful corner of spain.
Hope that everything is okay in swanage
and thank you again that I could meet your father.

Dieter

(If you are wondering...my father is the gnome-like creature in the middle)!

You never know when someone is taking your photo...

It's a sad day when a chap responding to a lifeboat call out can't leave his bike without fear of it being stolen and abused.




Fortunately for me (and the shout bike) Tim Healy was on hand to capture the incident on film.

I think I know where the villain lives.......

Lifeboat Sunday

Lifeboat Sunday kicked off with a shout first thing in the morning. Pretty unremarkable really except that it was Darren's first proper shout. A milestone in any lifeboating career, Daz will be pretty chuffed to have got out of the blocks.

Here he is admiring his handiwork having just set up the tow.

The new rescue helicopter Rescue 106 came over for a demonstration in the middle of the afternoon. Here James tries to look relaxed as he is lifted into her for the first time.

Thanks to Jeff and Dan Lander for providing our casualty vessel the 'Star of Hennock' (and for taking my youngsters to sea).

The First Aid demonstration was both realistic and well attended. Indeed it was a joy to watch with our crew looking confident and skillful.

As ever, the week concluded with the Lifeboat service on the Pier. The Rev Will Watts took the service while Nick did the talk (and excellent it was too).

Afterwards we took a turn around the bay with Will and a few other helpers and dignitaries before heading in to rehouse.

Dee and Emma were there and loving it! (Thanks for all of your help during the week)!

Here and gone

So Lifeboat week has finished. It's certainly been busy but also a lot of fun for all involved I think? As usual I have loads of photos, I will try and get organised over the next few days and put as many up as I can manage.

In a moving ceremony Deasy tapped the first barrel (all the beer was provided by the Ship...thanks Nathan)at about 4pm on Friday. I'm not sure exactly how many were drunk altogether but it was many!

Black Sheep kicked off the entertainment on Friday night with a spot of country dancing. As expected the crew interpreted this as an invitation to throw each other about wildly.

Stormy Stan showed up with his bucket many times and proved to be a real hit with the local girls.

And the crew seemed to be having a great time.

Lots of hugs and happy smiles all round...

Quizical

Wednesday night was the quiz night in the Conservative club. It was really well attended as usual and things went superbly. Not surprisingly one of the lifeboat teams won the 'wooden spoon' once more...well done 'SeaBass'!

Today is a busy day setting up things for the weekend down at Prince Albert Gardens. All the crew are meeting at 9 for a briefing and sharing out jobs. Busy times.

Please give generously!

Right, so I promised a few more photos so here they are (once again courtesy of Kim).

I also just wanted to say a huge thank you to all those of you who have given so generously to our fundraising page. So far we have raised roughly £1000 which with the 'Gift Aid' added rounds up to something like £1300. Not bad hey?

Of course if anyone still wishes to donate it is still possible to do so. So please Do...


Darren performed awesomely well. He easily led the team and made us look pretty professional!

John looked very strong on the bike (thanks Jason), tour de farce next year?

As usual I cruised along in my comfort zone enjoying the view.

Darren still looked annoyingly strong at the finish.

Indeed, many of the supporters looked more jaded than Darren! Notice the dynamic of this photo. All eyes are focused on Deasy...presumably he is in the middle of telling them all how well he did?!

Swanage Classic Triathlon

Well, I promised a few photos of the big day, here are a few of Kim's which she dropped off earlier this afternoon. They are superb and really capture the fun (and the pain) of the event. There's just a few for now as I'm a bit tired, perhaps more in the morning!So this was Deasy and I preparing for the start of the swim.And this is us underway. Hint, we're the one's wearing yellow caps!This is Liz just coming up into the transition area after her swim...looking fresh and ready for action!Followed by Deasy...Then holding the Lantern Rouge...yours truly.

More tomorrow. Goodnight.

(Thanks to Kim Notley for the superb photos.)

Job done.....

Well, finally the long awaited day has come. Team Swanage Lifeboat has completed the Swanage Classic Triathlon and, if I might be permitted to say, has done so in fine style.

We each had our own personal goals and mostly achieved them, so well done Darren, Liz and John (x2).

Later this evening when I have recovered a bit (and Kim has sent me her photos...hint, hint) I will post a few pictures of the action and tell a few stories about the event. For now though I just want to say a huge thank you to all of the crew, wives, girlfriends and mates who turned up so early to cheer us on, laugh and generally take the piss! You know who you all are (except Matt who's probably forgotten) so thanks, it was much appreciated. Mwa!

T- 1 and counting, Triathlon day is tomorrow (Sunday)

Registration
Daz and I went to register and collect our joining packs at lunchtime today. Because of the rubbish weather, registration was in the Mowlem community room on Swanage seafront. We also had to register the Gilmour's as they were both still away on a family holiday!
If anyone is planning to watch tomorrow then here are Team Swanage Lifeboat race numbers: Thanks to the RNLI fundraising department at divisional base for lifeboat vests

• John Deas 424
• John Gilmour 431
• Liz Gilmour 46
• Darren Tomes 99

Darren & Liz will be starting the swim at 6.45am!

Swim - Cycle transition hopefully between 7.10 - 7-20am

Cycle - Run Transition 8.25 -8.40 am

And finish between 9.30 - 9.45 am

Both Johns will be starting the swim at 7.20 am

Swim - Cycle transition hopefully between 7.45 - 7-55am

Cycle - Run Transition 9.00 -9.15 am

And finish between 10.05 - 10.20 am

Lets hope the weather is kind to us all, and Please come and support us if you can we will need it!

I will hand the blog back to John tomorrow for the results and some race details....

Pasta and early night tonight, lets hope the pagers stay silent!

Ahh! Only 5 days to go until Triathlon day

All the training is done, no more to do but sit, wait, and eat lots of pasta!
Oh and clean the bike....

Another 2 Divers!

Another two missing divers on Sunday afternoon, this time missing from a local dive charter boat after diving aprox 300m North of Swanage Pier. Both the Swanage Lifeboats were tasked along with the Coastguard Rescue Helicopter, the Swanage Coastguard and various local boats. Both lifeboats launched and started searching concentrating mostly on the area around the pier and around the moored boats. A few pairs of divers were located but none were the ones missing from the boat. After ten minutes or so of searching the two divers were located safe and well ashore on Swanage Pier so all units were stood down to return to station.

Capsized Pico!

Most of the crew were back up at sandpit field for another lemonade when the pagers went off for the second shout of the day. At 18:56 Portland Coastguard requested the launch of Swanage's Inshore Lifeboat to go to the assistance of a small sailing dinghy in difficulties 200 yards off Swanage Pier with people in the water. The lifeboat launched and was quickly on scene. The young lad that had been in the water was taken back to the boathouse, wrapped in blankets and warmed up. The Lifeboat then went back out to help recover the boat and towed it back to the boat park.

2 Missing Divers

At 14.15 on Saturday afternoon the pagers went off, we had all sat down for a well earned lemonade after the first couple of events for the carnival extreme team competition.
Portland Coastguard requested the launch of both the Swanage Lifeboats to assist in the search for 2 divers missing from a local dive charter boat. The divers had been diving approx 1Nm South of Anvil Point and were now overdue. Both the lifeboats launched and proceeded on route, just as the ILB was arriving on scene the 2 divers were found by another dive boat in the area. Once it was confirmed that these were the missing divers all units were stood down to return to station. A good outcome for all!

Extreme Team & 2 Lifeboat shouts!

We still managed to pull off second place in the Extreme team event, whilst doing a Both boat shout for 2 missing divers and persons in the water from a capsized sailing dingy....
More details tomorrow, I am off out for some well earned dinner!

Once Team Swanage Lifeboat cleared the mayhem at the start they opened up a good 2/3 minute lead up the hill before the tricky down hill section!

You will be pleased to know the Lifeboat team rompted home in 1st place.

Off for carnival Extreme team now.....

Come on the Lifeboat!

Chop & Will from Swanage & Wareham rugby ladies were in their well used matching outfits!

The Wheel barrow had Will hearts Chop on the side.... Make your own mind up!

I say old chap looks like a Victorian photo of a previous race, but its not....

Carnage at the 2nd drink stop!

Photo thanks to Dee Bowden

Martin Steeden the Lifeboat Coxswain entered with his SSRC team member Dee.

Martin looks like he cant wait to start!

Wheel Barrow fun!

Last night was the annual carnival wheel barrow race. The picture shows the competitors on the grid ready to go, around 50 strong this year!

Team Swanage Lifeboat were in attendance, John Deas & Gavin Steeden were towards the front of the line up in their JEWSON sponsored wheel barrow, Cheers Skid!

Swim, Bike, Run

Well, the training for our triathlon has gone surprisingly well. only 9 days now till the big day. We are all four of us pretty fit now and should be more than capable of completing the course!

Fundraising is going well too, so far our 'JustGiving' page has raised over a £1000 for the RNLI! People have been incredibly generous both with their money and their comments. I thought I'd include a few here. Of course there is still plenty of time for you to make a donation if you like. Perhaps if you are a regular reader and enjoy the blog you might consider a small donation? You can do so here if you wish.

-All the best - what fun you will have :@)
-Like you I want to be the best!
-Best of luck all - hoping at least one of you finishes ahead of Deas !
-Where's my trailer Deas?
-Good luck to you all :)
-Have fun.. Good luck!!! x
-All the very best, you can do it!
-Good luck, and try to enjoy it! (Go get 'the hill' John)
-Good on you all :)
-An excellent cause. Good luck to all of you !
-Mad as Hatters!!!
-Good luck and happy training.
-Enjoy!
-This should help you stay off the wine and women for a while - good luck!
-Have fun!
-Make sure you take both mobiles,you may need to call for help or I might need an order number!
-good luck
-£5 added for water wings
-I just hope the weather is kind
-JD quite a challenge, good luck to you all.
-Best of luck. You must be mad !
-Good luck Team Gilmour you mad bananas! What's wrong with a DVD and a packet of Pringles???
-Good luck
-Good luck John! Is Liz doing it as well?
-Good for you John, best of luck.
-Not my idea of fun! Good Luck.
-Why didn't you mention this before John? W you scared a fat northerner might have beaten you?? best of luck!
-Go for it! rather you than me!
-Good luck - my best time is 2.45 if you beat that I'll give another £10!
-Good luck
-Good luck x

On another note I am away for the next week in Denmark so John Deas will be picking up the baton with the blog. Wish him luck!

Rain or Shine

This year's lifeboat week kicks off at 7.30pm on Sunday 10th of August in Prince Albert Gardens with the Rain or Shine Theatre company performing William Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale". The tickets are £10 (£12 on the door), children £5 (5-15) and are available from the following:

Swanage Tourist Information Centre: 01929 422885 / 08704 420680

Swanage Lifeboat Station: 01929 423237

Grounds open from 6pm for picnics, please bring your own seating and warm clothing.

This promises to be a fabulous evening, the Rain or Shine Theatre Comany are a very professional touring outfit with a reputation for stunning interpretations of Shakespeare's classics.

Please come and suppport this event as we are certain it will be a tremendous evening. Book now before it is too late!!

(Thanks to rain or shine for the image).

An advert

Well, lifeboat week is almost upon us. In a very few short days we Will be gearing up for a week of lifeboat centric fun. As ever there are more events than last year. One of the highlights will be the reptiles playing on the Saturday night. Last night they played on the sea front as part of the carnival. Naturally we felt it was important to go and support them and to whet our appetites for lifeboat week.



Quite a gang were present and in a real party mood too.



They played a terrific party set of classic oldies and favourite rock tunes.



As ever there was no shortage of crew willing to strut their stuff on the dance floor!

Busy bay

Swanage is really busy. I mean 'really' busy. On Sunday when in between the Red Arrows and the carnival procession there were more boats in the bay than I have ever seen before. Dave Corben sent me this photo just as proof. He made the point that it is actually rather unbelievable that we were called out to the dinghy. Surely one of these boats must have noticed that the inflatable was a drift?

Anoyingly I can't get this photo to attach, I'll try again later!

Inflatables

have their uses. We have one which we occasionally depend upon aboard the Mersey. However, they can be a bit of a liability on the beach where they often get blown out to sea. Surprisingly we seldom get shouts to recover these things as there are generally plenty of folk passing by who can recover the thing before we are called.

Yesterday was an exception. Just as we were assembling for the carnival procession our pagers went off and the ILB was launched to recover two young people in an inflatable near te pier. Easy job, quickly done. Well done Gave, Kev and Deasy.

Twitter

Just a quick one.

I've just subscribed to Twitter (Look on the side bar to the right). This should allow me to update news automatically and provide more regular news on the fly without having to do complete posts. I'm not sure how it's going to work yet but will try it over the next few weeks.

Feel free to subscribe to it as it would be nice to know that someone was reading it!

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...

Spreading the word

Is something which we as lifeboat crew feel pretty passionate about. We strongly believe that what we do is vital work and worthy of being brought to as many people's attention as possible. Therefore it is no surprise that there is no shortage of volunteers from the crew when we are asked to give talks and presentations to people.

Yesterday Becky, Deasy and I went over to Lady St Mary's school in Wareham to talk to their Key Stage 1 and 2 children about our work and also to deliver the standard SeaSafety message. Not surprisingly we had a pretty enthusiastic and captive audience.

Of course, I'm pretty used to this sort of thing so it holds no fears for me. However, Becky and Deasy both found it a bit more intimidating. I think they were also both surprised by how hard you have to try to lower the level of your language when speaking to such a young audience (John struggles not to talk like a design engineer)!

Anyway, a great visit and thanks to Ginna (Miss Presland), the staff and pupils of Lady St Mary's for being so welcoming and their hospitality.

Pushing the boat out

There seems to have been a spate of thoughtless (and criminal) individuals pushing dinghies and other craft off beaches and hard stands out into the sea. Most of these are recovered by passing individuals and returned to their proper places. The ILB has just been launched to recover one such dinghy drifting near 1/2nm NOrth East of the lifeboat station. They recovered it and returned it to the beach in front of the angling club. I wonder if the individuals who did this care about the inconvenience they cause others? Perhaps in the light of other news stories this week about making offenders face their victims I shouldn't suggest it...doesn't seem to have done Jacqui Smith any good!

Similarly different

Lifeboats have characters all of their own; No two boats are the same. Dave, Chad, Matt and I found this out on Wednesday and Thursday when we took Amble's Mersey (Four Boys, 12-19, ex. Sennen Cove) from Poole to Falmouth for her refit.

For a start she only had East Coast charts in her chart plotter so we had to stop in Swanage and get our portfolio to upload. It turned out that their chart plotter had a significantly slower processor than ours and what should have been a quick job took ages.

It wasn't the only slow thing either, the boat was far slower than ours, perhaps as much as 2.5 knots slower (something like 15%). Over a long passage this becomes more and more noticeable. We concluded that having spent so long in Amble this pace of life had become customary!

One thing that wasn't different was the obligatory lifeboatman teddies provided by well meaning ladies (I have to say though, there's were much more smartly dressed than ours). There is something oddly reassuring about having these fellows along on a trip. I wonder if anyone out there could provide a more smartly dressed one for us?

Where should I begin?

Blimey it's been busy! So busy in fact that I've not had time to sit down at the computer to check my e-mails, let alone post any updates here. Since finishing school last Friday I spent Saturday and Sunday riding the 'South Downs Way' with MarkR. Monday and Tuesday were spent guiding my father-in-law around some of the local sights. On Wednesday and Thursday DaveT, Chad, Matt and I took Amble's Mersey from Poole to Falmouth to be re-fitted. Friday I spent at home doing gardening jobs until my pager went off at about 4pm. I then spent the next 7 hours at sea on the Mersey dealing with an unusual situation where a yacht and it's keel had almost but not quite parted company.

As we proceeded at full speed towards the yachts position 16 miles SSE of Anvil point help was being rendered (coincidentally) by HMS Mersey. By the time we arrived the influx of water had been stemmed and an injured crewman removed to HMS Mersey. We used the sea boat from HMS Mersey to transfer me across to the yacht so that the situation could be assessed. After consultation with the skipper and the Royal Naval crewman who was onboard (who turned out to be on the crew of the Portsmouth lifeboat) it was decided to remove all the crew except myself and the skipper using the seaboat and then take the yacht in tow and then head in the direction which seemed least likely to make the keel fall off! Ultimately this resulted in us towing her in the direction of the Isle of Wight.




Normally in this sort of situation we would hand the vessel over to the next lifeboat along the coast (in this case it would have been Yarmouth) however, the Coxwain wisely decided against doing this as it would have meant a second transfer of the 7 crew from the yacht...an un-necessary risk.

After a pretty lengthy tow we finally arrived in Lymington where we headed straight for the boat hoist in Berthons and had the yacht lifted out of the water. Upon inspection the yacht had clearly suffered a catastrophic failure of the GRP laminate around the hull and it was hard to ascertain exactly what was keeling the keel attached.

After a quick bite of fish and chips we headed straight back to Swanage and were re-housed at about 11.45pm. As a final flourish the starboard morse control on the Upper Steering Position failed just as Martin was putting her on the slip. Poor old DaveT then had to spend the next hour fixing this.

A long day...