Jackline

is the other name by which Jackstays are known. Whichever you prefer, Jackstay or Jackline, both terms actually refer to any line rigged securely between two points and used as a support. Indeed, the names can correctly be used to refer to: the line from which a refuelling hose is suspended when RASing, the centre line used to support an awning rigged over a hot deck, a line rigged between ship and shore along which a breeches bout could be hauled, and a line rigged to a spar on a square-rigged ship to which the head of a sail is attached.

Importantly, given their use in situations where support is required, they should always be rigged with a minimum safety factor of four, i.e. the load supported by the Jackstay, including its own weight, should not be more than one-quarter the breaking strain of the wire or rope used.

(with thanks to 'The Oxford companion to Ships and the Sea' - perhaps the most beguiling book of all time)

Jackstay

Look closely at the photo and you will notice that both Becky and Steve are clipped onto the boat. Becky is attached using her harness line to the jackstay which runs along the starboard (and of course port) side of the wheelhouse of the boat. Meanwhile Steve is clipped to a similar jackstay which runs down the centre line of the foredeck. Using these it is possible to circumnavigate the entire deck in safety and while clipped on. In the sort of weather we have been having recently it has not been uncommon for crew to be clipped on while out of the wheelhouse.

For those of you interested in the pointless details of life, you might notice that Becky is wearing a pair of black boots...not a fashion statement, but simply the only pair of steel toe-capped wellington boots in the world which are small enough to fit her (and this particular brand don't make them in yellow). Dainty hey?!

Wasting police time

It is beginning to seem from news reports that our search on Tuesday night was both futile and a waste of time. One of my colleagues at school yesterday asked me if I wasn't really cross and angry at having given up a nights sleep to search for people who weren't there in the first place. Well...to be honest no, and I think everyone in the crew feels pretty much the same.

The bottom line is, we were called out by Coastguard in good faith. For as long as they have a glimmer of a suspicion that there is someone out there waiting for help we are happy to go. Indeed, we want to go.

And now? Well, at least we know that we didn't break off the search and leave someone out there praying to be rescued. All's well that ends well I say...

Searching

To be honest, conditions for visual searching on Tuesday night were pretty poor. I've read various reports of how extreme the weather was online, some seemed realistic...others a bit over the top. Either way, chances of finding what you are looking for is drastically reduced. Luckily it is beginning to seem like there were no further people in the water and that a more complex and confusing story is beginning to unravel. I for one am just pleased that we didn't leave anyone out there unfound.

Sleepless night

So, following on from a late night at the AGM, we were woken by our pagers at about 1.20am this morning and shortly afterwards launched the ALB to join a search under way in the Poole bay area looking for a group of people, believed to be Eastern European, who were thought to have jumped off the back of the Barfleur (cross-channel ferry) wearing wetsuits and hoping to swim ashore to a better life. One of the party was found alive on a local beach and is now recovering in hospital...the others, sadly, we didn't find. At this stage it is unclear whether they in fact chose not to jump and got ashore by other means, or whether they are still out there. We re-housed at about 5.30am and washed the boat down and re-fuelled. It is likely that the search will continue today.

More news later.

The Vicar of Dibley...

came to visit us tonight. No really, it was our AGM once more and our guest presenter was the new Head of the Lifeboat College, the one and only Geraldine Grainger. Understandably the pull of a major celebrity was tough to resist and the turn out (for a windy and wintry November evening) was impressive.

As it turned out, Geraldine wasn't actually the Geraldine Grainger. Still, she was a pleasant change from the usual old sea dogs wittering on and brought a certain amount of glamour to the whole evening. So thank you Geraldine for being so kind as to grace our AGM, and I apologise for any hint of disappointment you might have sensed from the audience (and for being so dull as to write a whole tedious blog post about what must seem to you like a very poor old joke)!

So there you go...another year in the bag. There were a whole host of awards for long service and good behaviour: David Haines (LMA), Russ Johnson (DLA), Gary Williams (Ex crew), John Dear (for something like a million years service as winchman), Diana for a mention for her Gold Badge and of course all the others who I forget.

Still, despite the company of the rich and famous and the lure of an awards ceremony, it was a relatively impromptu talk by Gav about his and Deasy's recent exploits with the RNLI Flood Response Team in Cockermouth which grabbed the attention and admiration of the assembled crowd. Well done Gav, fine words and fine deeds...

Safe home

Welcome home Gav and Deasy, a quick two days away but lots achieved. From a brief chat with Deasy it sounds as if they have had a memorable experience and achieved a great deal of good work...well done both of you and good to have you back safe and sound. I look forward to getting some photos and stories in due course.

I'm just back form a quick paddle in a blown out Swanage bay. The wind is dead offshore so the waves are clean but the gusts pretty unpleasant in the kayak...I quickly decided that discretion was the better part of valour and came home! Not so brave as the surfers who are still lined up there patiently waiting the perfect break.

Spare a thought...

For Deasy and Gav who are up in Cumbria at the moment with the RNLI flood rescue team. The Bournemouth Echo has picked up on the story here. Our thoughts and prayers are with them, as they are with the family of Bill barker, the police officer who sadly lost his life during the flood.

Wet 'n' windy

The weather here is still wild...wet, windy and poor visibility, so I should imagine that this evening's exercise will be another pretty damp affair. Last weeks was characterised by moments when the rain was so thick it obliterated the picture on the radar (no matter how we tuned it)! Roll on summer...

Winter weather

So it's been a windy old weekend, not the first of late either. I've just found this bit of video on my camera from a few weekends ago, somehow cameras always flatten off waves but notice Steve clip his harness on...gives an idea of how lumpy it was:

Mighty Power Rangers

Dave, Tom and Neil have recently returned from the Divisional conference (held annually for key station personnel). At it they were told about the RNLI's environmental policy and how they want to make a 5% electricity saving across the whole of the Institution. Being as our own electricity bill runs in to the thousands each year, this should represent a worthwhile and significant saving. Typically, rather than seeing this as a call to turn off the odd light, Dave saw it as a chance to audit our power usage and develop some sophisticated timers and switches so that we can continued to do everything we need to but make at least a 5% saving and, knowing Dave, twice that.

So Dave's first move was this simple timer which when the button is pressed turns on the heater in the crew room for a set period of time.

Then, in a flash of inspiration he has designed this very clever box of tricks which, if pressed after a shout or exercise, will turn on the drying cupboard heaters for 6 hours...just long enough to dry our sodden drysuits and oilskins.

Alone this should be enough to save the required 5% but Dave is naturally not satisfied with this and now has the hot water boiler and station PC in his sights!

Well done Dave!

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.

That sinking feeling!

So the Mersey was out again yesterday, called this time to a small yacht which had been spotted adrift and seemingly unmanned.

Sure enough there was no one aboard so we sorted that by putting Gav on.

Un-accustomed to such burdens, the poor unfortunate vessel promptly sank!

It would seem that the vessel had been cast adrift from it's mooring and had then drifted out of the harbour.

(Photos: Boat camera)

Speechless

It's almost unbelievable but last night Poole lifeboat station was broken into and ransacked by thieves. It's not certain at this point what was taken but what is certain is that many of the Poole crew have had a busy day sorting out their kit and trying to restore the place to some sort of order. Let's hope they catch the culprit(s) and find a way of re-briefing them about how decent members of a society should behave. In the meantime our thoughts are with the lads and lasses in Poole.

Hoodies

Good friend Nigel Saxon brought this new RNLI YouTube video to my attention. I really approve of this sort of attempt to boost the positive image of young people and what they contribute to communities. We are lucky in Swanage in having a good number of young people on our crew with more joining all the time. Please pass this link on to as many people (young and old) as you can. Thanks.

Assessments

Last nights exercise was once more a game of two halves. To begin with the ALB launched at 1800 with an assessor onboard and ran through a number of CoBT assessments. I understand that these all went well and that many of our crew are now closer to being fully competent in all aspects of their training.

The Alb then came in for a crew change and then went to sea for a second time with a more experienced crew and undertook a night navigation exercise using radar and chart-plotter around East Loe channel. Again this went well and everyone demonstrated that they understood what was being done and achieved all that could be expected of them.

On return, I had my first go at re-housing the boat while using a breasting line which proved to be interesting but ultimately successful! Phew...

Bear with me

For a variety of reasons life seems to have got a whole lot busier recently. Consequently I seem to have very little time for blogging at the moment. It's not that nothing is happening in our lifeboating world in Swanage...quite the opposite...things are very busy one way or another. However, for some reason none of it seems easy to write about in the time I have available. So, what I think I'm saying (and this may well change tomorrow or indeed at any other time in the future) is that there is going to be little in the way of action around here for a while 'till things calm down.

Lifeboats 365

I have mentioned recently to a few folk that I had a new idea for a blog which I was mulling over. Over the summer I got a fair number of photos from tourists, friends and other people involved with lifeboats which they thought might find a place on this blog. Having given this some thought, I've decided that I would like to keep the Lifeboat Scrapbook fairly exclusively about our crew and boat in Swanage but create a space for a more collaborative blog about lifeboats and maritime lifesaving in general. Here is my first attempt, if you would like to contribute (and there will only be any content if you do) then please e-mail me at lifeboat365@gmail.com remember to include both photos and pictures which I do not intend to edit unless absolutely necessary.

700

As I anticipated, Paul Savage, Clinical Lead from the RNLI, felt inclined to add some detail to yesterday's post:

John,

Last year the MCA requested that P4 was dropped in favour of the term "dead". This is partly because in strict international triage rules P4 does not mean dead. P4 is a category called "expectant" which means the patient is not dead but will not survive the injuries they have sustained. This call is usually made by a doctor.

Also, in line with all the other emergency services, when involved in a major incident management and using the triage sieve, if the patient is not breathing they are "declared" dead. Certification of death will be done after the incident by a doctor and police officer.
These rules only apply on mass casualties, the definition of which is casualties outnumbering rescuers on a 1:to:1 ratio.
When rescuers outnumber casualties non-breathing casualties will always be given CPR and be a P1 patient.

Hope this helps.

Paul

Many thanks Paul for the detailed information...it all makes sense now!

Priorities

Dave has just sent an email around to let us know that a new piece of kit has just arrived at the station. He often does this to keep us in the loop and fully informed of what is changing. Not that we often have to resort to triage, but in the past we have identified each casualties priority level with a card tag which would be attached to them. We now have these rather nifty arm bands which are much clearer and will remove a lot of the confusion. The said, I'm suprised to see that we should now be categorising casualties as 'Dead' rather than the old P4...somehow it felt more subtle and perhaps professional to refer to them as a priority number (also, we have always been told that we are not qualified to declare someone as being dead therefor were not allowed to use the term. Just goes to show that things do change.

Thanks Dave for the photo