Why does it always rain on me?

It's holiday time. I'm a teacher you see, so every couple of weeks I get a couple of weeks off. Mostly holidays seem to begin with rain, grey skies and a cold. This one is not disappointing so far. My plan is to spend some time north of the border visiting relatives and mountain-biking. Naturally this will be the cue for a spate of shouts. I will continue to blog as often as possible. I have quite a backlog of things to talk about and photos so I will see what I can get through.

I've added a few links on the Other Links section to the right (scroll down a bit), these are links to a site which provides real time met, tide and wave data for Swanage pier.....great stuff, have a play.

Talking of weather we've had a few weeks of quite incredible weather, real beach and shorts stuff. But of course in Britain this kind of thing never lasts long. The forecast this morning was typical start of the holidays stuff:

Selsey Bill to Lyme Regis

Issued by the Met Office at 0600 UTC on Saturday 31 March 2007

24 hour forecast:

Wind - Northeast 5 or 6, occasionally 7.
Weather - Fair.
Visibility - Moderate or good, occasionally poor at first.
Sea State - Slight becoming moderate.

Outlook for the following 24 hours:

Wind - Northeasterly 5 or 6, decreasing 4 or 5.
Weather - Showers.
Visibility - Moderate or good.
Sea State - Moderate

And the nowcast? Well, just like the above but with rain thrown in for good measure. Happy holidays!

Robert Charles Brown Pass out

Simon Pryce (Divisional Inspector/South) begins his inspection at the sharp end.Richard Morris (RNLI Tech Surveyor) and Paul Spear (Deputy Divisional Engineer/South) discuss technical matters.Simon Pryce inspects the salvage pump.David Steele (RNLI Tech Surveyor) and Paul Spear check the port side fire main.Robert Charles Brown back alongside ready to be lifted from the water.Robert Charles Brown back in the hoist ready to go back into the yard for remedial work to be carried out.

Here's Dave's report on the day:

Myself, Simon Pryce & Paul Speare headed across to South Boats (Cowes, IOW) to meet staff from the yard & the 2 RNLI Tech Surveyors, Richard Morris (Hull) & Dave Steel (Machinery). The day went kinda like this

10:30 - Arrived at South Boats, tea & biscuits and a short chat about timings and what had been done on the boat.

11:00 - Taken to the boat so that we could have a look over her and list any problems that we found. This included mustering kit, checking things that I'd found on the last snagging trip & looking for bits that had been missed.

13:00 - Lunch

13:30 - Took the boat to sea to check the engines, electronics, pumps etc

15:20 - Back alongside

15:30 - Tea & debrief, snagging list completed and signed off.

16:15 - Back on the Red Jet back to Southampton.

There was very little wrong with the boat, most of the niggles that I'd found on the last visit had been sorted although I still wasn't happy with the USP throttle controls. Simon & Paul found a few other bits & bobs but nothing serious. The unfortunate thing was that the yard had managed to scratch the blue paint on the port side (only slightly) a few days before our arrival. They'd done it putting the boat alongside a pontoon and to say that they were a little annoyed is a bit of an understatement! They had touched the scratch up but Richard & Simon weren't happy. This meant that she was lifted out of the water & the whole of the port side will have to be resprayed. We are now aiming to pick her up the Tues/Weds after Easter (hopefully!)

Think that about covers it.

Cheers

Dave

Thanks to Dave Turnbull for the photos.

God

Each lifeboat station has a Lifeboat Operations Manager (LOM). Until recently they were referred to as the Honorary Secretary (Hon Sec for short) but far more commonly by the crew they are both referred to and treated as God. You see they call the shots, not on the boat which is the Coxswain's domain, but ashore and in the boathouse. They quite simply must be obeyed and deferred to.

Ours is Captain Neil Hardy. He is a man who commands respect; Falklands veteran, Master Mariner, Ferry Captain, greying, old and resident in Worth Matravers. By the younger crew he is feared, by the elder crew respected. And with good reason. He runs the show and is unafraid of tough decisions. Tow the line and he will grease the cogs of your lifeboating life. Mess up more than once and you have a problem........a God shaped problem.

Sally

This afternoon at 4.30 we launched with a very sad task to perform. Sally Wood, wife of our Parish Priest John Wood, recently lost her battle with cancer. John asked us if we could help him carry out Sally's wish to have her ashes scattered in Swanage bay. Naturally we were happy to help, indeed we were honoured to be asked.

Although cold, the weather was bright with a brisk South Westerly blowing. We steamed slowly into the middle of the bay and then stopped for some time. It was a sad occasion but somehow it was also a pleasure to be there, doing something that we knew was Sally's wish. We pray that John and Jennie come to terms with their loss and cope in their grief. We are glad that in our limited way we might have helped.

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)

Crabs

Lifeboat shouts rarely happen at convenient times. That's the nature of the job. Monday's shout was during my tea time. Now I wouldn't normally mind but on this occasion I was just tucking into the innards of a fine 4 1/2 lb brown crab freshly plucked from the deep by Geoff Marsh andTom. I think you'll agree, he was a beauty!

Talking of which, it would appear that Tom has an admirer. Apparently he is 'cute', not sure that I would agree but then I am neither female nor American (I suspect they may have a slightly more exotic taste in man)?! My advice to the delightful if ever so slightly deranged Megan? Reserve judgement 'till you've smelt him!

It had to be you.......

Martin as you know is our Coxswain. Rob is our principle Second Coxswain, Martin's right hand man if you like. In their absence it falls to Dave (Mechanic)and I to take the boat to sea. On Monday night Martin was out walking his dogs and Rob was out of town so Dave acted as Coxswain and I as his second Cox.

The majority of the responsibility is fairly easy to deal with. However, without doubt, the hardest part is picking which crew are going to fill the vacant spaces on the boat. On Monday night with Martin and Rob away we had 3 gaps and Dave (he was pretending to be busy with the engines) asked me to pick from the assembled crew at the bottom of the stairs. Now I made the fatal error of looking at them.........8 pairs of puppy dog eyes staring up at me, each set pleading 'pick me, pick me'! In a flash I realised that this is an almost impossible decision to make. In the end I made the choice of a mix of experience (Ron) and youth (Matt). The others unfortunately had to be content to work on the slipway and do whatever needed doing in the boathouse. Thankless but necessary.

Of our casualty nothing has yet been heard. No reports have come back to us of her being found but equally no reports have been received of any missing persons. Our thoughts remain with her and we pray that this will have a happy outcome.

It had to be you
It had to be you
I wandered around and finally found
The somebody who
(Gus Kahn and Isham Jones)

Missing person

Last nights shout was in many ways a 'classic' missing persons shout. Details were sketchy leaving us no option but to cover all the bases.

Shortly after launching both boats conducted a close inshore search from Peveril Point to Durslston Head. Nothing found. We then repeated this with a much slower and closer return trip. Again nothing found. We then returned along the same route but stopping periodically to fire parachute flares in the hope that this would illuminate further into the crevasses between rocks. This worked but yielded no result. This kind of search is tiring and tricky as pretty much every shadow becomes a potential casualty and each washed up lobster pot takes on a human form.

By the time we had completed this pass we had just about come to the conclusion that the missing person was not in this area. Then the eagle eyed Kev (who had gone ashore from the ILB) found a fairly large amount of wet blood on the rocks. This suggested that someone had fallen over the cliff and sustained injuries. Definitely a case of information which widens the pool of uncertainties rather than narrowing things down. It was beginning to look like we would be there a while. The Police were called at this point and Portland were asked to request the launch of the Solent Coastguard Helicopter (India Juliet) which was at immediate readiness. At this point there were perhaps 20 lifeboat crew, 10 Coastguards, 3 police and now the 4 man crew of IJ involved.

Unfortunately IJ was diverted whilst en-route to attend another incident so we returned to our slipway to await their arrival. At this point we had little hope of finding a casualty alive but there remained a faint chance that IJ's FLIR (Forward Looking Infra Red) camera could spot their body warmth either in amongst the rocks or in the sea. Sadly this was not the case. At this point the Coastguard ops room team have to make a judgement call about whether in their opinion the search has given a near 100% chance of finding what was there. On this occasion they felt that the search had been thorough and comprehensive and therefor that whatever had been there wasn't anymore.

These kind of outcomes are pretty hard to deal with. We know from the evidence that there was a person there and that they were hurt and hurt badly enough to need help. We also know that on this occasion we couldn't help them. This doesn't sit comfortably. Typically we will hear no more about this. Another un-resolved incident to add to the list.

Hopefully our casualty is well and being cared for somewhere. Our thoughts are with her...............

Launch both boats

At 8.36pm Portland Coastguard paged our DLA Russ requesting that he launch both boats to assist in a search in Durlston bay looking for a lady who had been acting in a confused and strange way. 8 minutes later the ALB launched. Sadly nothing was found with the exception of some blood below the cliffs on the shoreline. Nothing more is known of the woman at this point. I will bring you the full story in the morning once I have had some sleep.

He ain't heavy - He's your brother

We are a close bunch as a crew. It's hard to know if this is normal, but for us it is and we like it this way. Becky graduated this weekend so Jo, Tom and Matt baked her a cake to help her celebrate. Oli and Jo went for a bike ride together. Nick helped me dig over my vegetable patch. Jo then came to ours for dinner. Most of the crew went out on Saturday night. All very sociable. And we like it like this. I also think it helps us to be an effective crew, more understanding of each others strengths and weaknesses. Heartwarming stuff hey?!

The usual 10 o'clock Monday page has just arrived. ILB helm this week is Steve. There is a dry exercise this week on Wednesday in the boathouse. The ILB should go to sea but the ALB will be ashore and I will be doing some shore based training with crew. The plan for this is to run through the COLREGS, lights/sounds/signals and keeping a watch. Fun stuff!?

So on we go
His welfare is my concern
No burden is he to bear
We'll get there
For I know
He would not encumber me
He ain't heavy, he's my brother
(B. Scott and B. Russell)

RCB

A lifeboat is a very personal thing. Like a person they have character, foibles and whimsical ways. For some time now we have had a relief lifeboat. On paper no less capable than the Robert Charles Brown, in practise like a pair of shoes worn in by someone else; the throttles stick, guard rails are too tight, searchlights too loose, stowages in different places, she’s more sluggish, possibly slower and altogether less ‘ours’.

Delighted we are then that the time is approaching for the Robert Charles Brown to return. Yesterday Dave travelled to Cowes, IOW, for her first post-refit sea trials. By all accounts they went well. It can certainly not be denied that she looks the business. The process now is that any identified defects will be put right prior to her final acceptance trial. Once this is over, providing she is accepted, she will make the passage back to Swanage to take over from the relief boat.

For us this passage and changeover is a simple affair, a drive to Poole, train to Southampton, ferry to Cowes and then drive her home. Spare a thought for stations which are further from their refit facilities. For them the passage can take some days to complete. These passages are the stuff of legend and almost always pass into the annals of station history, “do you remember that time in Fowey when……………” I’m sure you can fill in the spaces!

So for the next few weeks we will gradually re-acquaint ourselves with our station boat. An old friend to be appreciated and admired, enjoyed and respected for her particular, unique qualities. A veritable springtime in our lifeboating year.

Here's Dave's report on his day yesterday:

Morning . .

1. Only I went.
2. Not bad, it was the first of the 4 hour snagging trials and the first time the engines had been run at full throttle since they were put back in the boat. There's still a lot of cleaning to do and about 4 x A4 pages of snagging, that's normal apparently. She seemed to run well although none of the VHFs would work, except the handheld! There was a small oil leak on the port engine but they sorted that at sea.
3. Passout is scheduled for 29th March when the DI, DDE & I will go over and go right through everything. If all goes well I'd like to get her on Mon or Tues 2/3 April so we can do some slip trials in the afternoon at low water.
4. Only new (different) thing is mod to pyrogen system to match what we've got on the relief boat.
5. She's had a full repaint, some FRC repairs, a new radar mast (old one was bent), engine's rebuilt and their power increased to 320Hp, 3 new keels the list goes on!
6. Yes she's in Cowes.
7. There's another 4 hour trial today to get some more hours on the boat.

Think that covers it

Will your anchor hold?

Last nights exercise was, for my crew, a chance to practise the evolutions learnt last Sunday in the dark. Darkness has a way of making previously simple and instinctive tasks seem somehow awkward and foreign. That said the crew coped very well, the anchor was set, the salvage pump was rigged and run and a man-over-board was recovered. All very satisfactory!

The highlight for me was spending some time with the superb Jo Bowry delving into her knowledge of where items are stowed on the boat. This is, in a way, basic stuff. But it is also ever so easy to forget. It turns out that Jo is a walking encyclopedia of lifeboat stowage arrangements..........there is nothing she could not put her hands on if you were to ask politely enough! A good student backed up by a good brain.

Will your anchor hold in the storms of life,
When the clouds unfold their wings of strife?
When the strong tides lift and the cables strain,
Will your anchor drift, or firm remain?
(Priscilla J Owens)

Vernal Equinox

Yesterday it looked rather like someone had pulled the plug on Swanage bay. This was because of the huge range of the spring tides due to the Vernal Equinox. Also known as the Spring Equinox this is when day and night are of equal duration. The two yearly equinoxes occur when the Sun crosses the celestial equator. The vernal (spring) equinox occurs on March 21; the autumnal equinox occurs on September 21.

On days like this launching can be a real problem. At low tide we can very literally run out of slipway. The boat does not slide very well on the concrete toe as you can imagine. Luckily the boat will generally have enough momentum at this point to carry it over. However, yesterday there was a very strong Northerly wind which actually could have slowed the boat down enough for it not to make it. How embarrassing would that be?!

Thanks to the ever hard working Dave for the photo....

School of hard knocks

In these days of enlightened equality upon lifeboats it is not uncommon to spot members of the fairer sex onboard one of the institutions rescue craft. Indeed 8% of lifeboat crews nationally are female according to recent figures. One consequence of this has been a softening of the image of lifeboat crewmembers. No longer are we all hairy old sea dogs who look like we have weathered more than our fair share of life's storms.

Of course there are exceptions. Ron is ours. He will never disappoint anyone who is seeking a traditionally appointed lifeboatman. No doubt, he has weathered a few storms, been round the block a few times, been trained at the school of hard knocks and had a tough paper round to boot.

Ron, our very own salty old sea dog!

When a man grows old and his balls grow cold
And the end of his p***k turns blue
And he's bent in the middle like a one string fiddle
He can tell you a tale or two.

When a man grows old and his balls grow cold
And the end of his p***k turns blue
And the hole in the middle refuses to piddle
I'd say he's f****d wouldn't you?
(The Ballad of Eskimo Nell)

Fundraising

It has been said before that the RNLI is a 'rich' charity.

In a sense this is true. At the turn of the century it had more than £250m invested and a further £150m in assets making it the 13th richest charity based on funds. This worries some people. It suggests that the charity no longer needs financial support. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. The £150m in assets is tied up in a lot of property (boathouses, lifeboats and training facilities) which are all essential but are not assets which could be used to fund the work of lifesaving. As for the £250m invested, this is less that 18 months operating funds which sounds a lot but is in fact half of what is allowed by the Charity Commission.

During the 70's the charity fell on hard times. For some reason charitable giving had not kept pace with inflation and rising operating costs, as a result the Institution was almost bankrupt and was facing a situation where it was considering plans to close stations and cut back on services. Not surprisingly the Directors for the RNLI now understands the vital importance of holding reserves as a safeguard against a similar situation in future.

Indeed it is the reserves which give the Institution the security to plan for the future. In the time in which I have been on the crew I have seen this planning lead to two new classes of lifeboats being designed and built and money invested in vastly superior crew training facilities. This gives me confidence as a crewman that we will continue to have the very best of kit and be backed up with a professional and expert support structure.

The RNLI is not rich, it is solvent and necessarily so. Please keep giving.

Measured mile

I have mentioned before that our patch is littered with ready reference points which we use when communicating with the Coastguard. It makes sense to make reference to a headland or bay rather than passing a lat and long sometimes. One of the more prominent features on any coastline must always be its lighthouses. Ours is a beauty and is an important reference point for us.

Just to the east of the lighthouse stand erect two metal posts. Exactly one nautical mile to the west lie another pair. Together these two pairs of posts are used from the sea by the Navy and indeed anyone else wishing to calibrate instruments. From having one pair exactly in transit to having the next pair exactly in transit is one nautical mile, 1852 metres or one minute (1/60th of a degree) of longitude. Handy if you know what they are!

Paddling my backyard

Along with many others I had plans for some recreation this weekend. And great it was too. The plan was to paddle from Weymouth to Lulworth with Mark R, take some photos and play around as close inshore as possible. We achieved all this and it was glorious to be in amongst the rocks, seaweed and waves on such a fine day. Luckily we had no mishaps and arrived in Lulworth under blue skies, ready for tea and cake.

The color of the sky as far as I can see is coal grey.
Lift my head from the pillow and then fall again.
With a shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather.
A quiver in my lips as if I might cry.
Well by the force of will my lungs are filled and so I breathe.
Lately it seems this big bed is where I never leave.
Shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather.
Quiver in my voice as I cry,
"What a cold and rainy day. Where on earth is the sun hid away." (10,000 Maniacs)

Silly season?

In a way the weather has been unseasonably good. This often leads to a dramatic increase in the number of shouts we are called on (we could hardly be quieter!) We often refer to this as the 'Silly Season' for a number of reasons: there seems to be more silly people around doing silly things in silly craft, and also our workload can get a bit silly.

The story often goes a bit like this: Dennis arrives in boatpark with crappy car, crappy boat and crappy engine. At the twentieth attempt Dennis manages to reverse said ensemble into the sea. He then spends at least half an hour trying to start the engine, this usually involves taking it to pieces. The minute the engine starts Dennis heads straight out to sea in a cloud of smoke with no lifejackets, little fuel and his entire extended family. Half an hour later our pagers go off.......! (This is an entirely true story but to save humiliating people some of the names, details and events have been changed).

Thankfully the RNLI has chosen to be pro-active in halting this sort of nonsense with their superb sea-safety campaign. I wish them every success.

Counter Intuition

I have heard it said that one should never trust an estate-agent. May I suggest that you might want to reconsider this advice if he happened to be the only thing standing between you and aquatic safety?

Anthony is the latest in a line of Corbens who have been both Lifeboatmen and, that rarest of rare, honourable and trustworthy estate-agents.

You may wish to spare a thought for Anthony's old man, Dave. He has recently emerged from a hospital visit where he had one of his major internal organs fiddled with (and who says estate-agents have no heart?) Get well soon Dave.

Lifeboat photography

One happy spin off of blogging has been a re-awakened interest in photography. I have begun to take a real pleasure in getting the right perspective, cropping and looking for the new angle.

I have discovered that taking photos is essentially impossible on the boat at night and almost guaranteed to produce appalling results. I have also discovered that it is almost impossible to take a bad photo of a lifeboat by day. Something to do with the jolly colour scheme perhaps? In any case. I will persist with both and try to seek new and more interesting images to brighten my dull words with......

I leave you with this non lifeboat thought:

Being happy is your greatest contribution to the world.
Happy people are the real philanthropists.
(Aaron Wirpel)