The painting has arrived...

and it looks awesome. Rebecca has done us proud and produced a really stunning painting in her fabulous and distinctive style...thanks Rebecca!

And of course, if you are liking what you are seeing, get along to the Mulberry Tree Gallery website (or their actual shop!) and buy some raffle tickets. Alternatively you can also pick them up from the Boathouse or the RNLI shop in town.

Unfortunately Blogger is not allowing me to upload photos as present (not sure why) so I will try again later to stick a photo up...

Win a fabulous original Rebecca Lardner Painting

One fantastic new fundraising initiative this year has been organised by the Mulberry Tree Gallery in Swanage. They have very kindly agreed to organise this on our behalf and the money raised will be donated to the RNLI. We anticipate that it could raise many thousands of pounds. However, this will only happen if tickets sell well and for this we need your help. With this in mind, once you have read this (and bought your tickets), please consider sending the link to as many friends as you feel able and encourage them to buy tickets.



This is what the lovely people at the gallery have to say about it:

We are holding a raffle for a
Rebecca Lardner original worth upwards of £2,500. Rebecca is currently
working on the picture and it will have elements of Swanage in it as well
as the 2 lifeboats that are stationed at Swanage.

Rebecca won Artist of the Year in 2010 and is a nationally acclaimed
artist (living in Dorset) and we're really pleased that she has agreed to
udnertake this commission for us in the hope of raising upwards of £5,000
for the RNLI.

Click here and buy your tickets now!!

Please can I have your support?

Hi,
 
On April 3rd I shall be running the Giant's Daughter with good friends Tim, Steve and Charlotte.  Two pupils at my school, Will and Ollie, lost their father in 2003 when the helicopter in which he was travelling crashed in Iraq.  This year my Tutor group have been raising money for Help for Heroes in his memory – we thought that we'd try to add a little to their effort.
 
The Giant's Daughter is a 30 mile off-road challenge, set in the hills around the famous Cerne Abbas Giant.  It's not a race, but we have set ourselves the target of completing the route in 5 ½ hours.  Training is going well so far, this weekend I look set to pass the 300 mile mark for this year, and while we're pretty confident of finishing, the target time is still a pretty significant challenge and will depend very much on the terrain and conditions we find.
 
If you feel this is worthy of a contribution, we've set up a Virgin Money Giving page and anything donated will be very gratefully received.
 

Click here to Donate!

Many thanks...
 
John 
 

 

 

Lucky Chad...

To finish the week we ran through a few scenarios thoughtfully provided by Jen.  Lucky Chad ended up as a diver with a bend in his favourite position...clenched between another chaps thighs!

All good fun!

Bet you can't guess what we're doing tonight!

Busy night...

Tonight is our first scenario night.  So far it seems to be going well, but we are only being drilled on what we've learnt so far, so pretty simple stuff. 

In this photo Chad and Tom are dealing with an unconscious sailor who has been hit on the head with a boom.  As taught they are working through their check cards and trying hard not to panic!

Quick as a flash...

It seems like no time since we did our last first aid course.  However, it's three years now so here we are again.  This time we have a lovely instructor called Jen who seems to know what she is talking about...which is encouraging!

It's always tough to concentrate at the end of a long working day but of course, there's a great incentive when doing first aid...the understanding that you are gaining the knowledge to save a life.  Good news.

Front page

This quarter's Lifeboat, Offshore and Compass magazines have just fallen on the door matt. There's a couple of photos and mentions of Swanage Lifeboat inside due to the service we performed in August with the local trip boat. It's always nice to get a mention!

Expect the un-expected

So, I went for a paddle with a few mates this afternoon. A classic trip in our parts, K-Bay to Swanage. A 2 1/2 hour trip if you play the tides right and usually a few lumpy spots of fun around the headlands.

Steve also came with us as I have two lovely sea kayaks at the moment...we even managed to practise a few Shanties!

And then, before we really knew what was happening we had been sucked into a rescue of two climbers. As Eurion paddled past he noticed them waving. Of course he waved and paddled on...as you do! We then noticed that the climbers were actually very friendly indeed, and in fact, perhaps not just friendly but also stuck. Upon paddling closer and having a chat this in fact turned out to be the case.

So we did what we do...called the Coastguard and explained the situation and what we thought might be the correct assistance. Naturally the Coastguards tone on the radio changed ever so slightly once they realised that they were dealing with two fellas who had seen this situation a number of times before. So we waited around at the base of the cliff (in a rather uncomfortable swell) until the Coastguard cliff rescue team arrived on scene and we had guided them to the spot.

So we then carried on our way...

And returned to Swanage feeling like quite the dutiful citizens...

All good.

Wish you were here...

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

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

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

The full story can be read here....

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

Dirty thirty...

So it's Gav's birthday party tonight. It seems most of the crew is present...along with Jim Etherington playing some tunes and a substantial number of the rugby club.  I'm guessing it might get messy?

Happy birthday Gav....

The bringer of bad stuff...

Paul Savage came and provided a medical scenario this evening. Once again it was a juicy exercise, this time to a casualty who'd fallen down the cliff....

As always there are lessons to be learnt...perhaps most of all, we learnt that in certain situations speed is of the essence.  Hopefully, next time we have this situation, we will understand more clearly what is needed!

That said, those involved dealt with the casualty effectively and hopefully saved a life. If nothing else, at least some of the newer crew now know what a casualty who has fallen down a cliff might look like.

End-ex

Teamwork

one of the great things about being part of the crew is that there is always a handy gang available to help you lift stuff.  Sometimes, what goes around takes a long time to come around...but yesterday I finally repaid Gav for his help when moving 7 years ago!

Fine work...

Woof woof

so the ILB has just launched to assist a dog owner recover their unfortunate hound from the base of Old Harry. No real news yet....I'll let you know if it's an interesting story.

Lifeboat Lobster....

It seems like every year we manage to add more to our already busy lifeboat week. One fantastic addition to our event this year was a raffle for a lovely big lobster. Swanage Bay Fish proprietors Julia and Terry very kindly donated the prize and I believe arranged the raffle. In total their customers raised £145 for the RNLI. The lucky winner being a local lady, Mrs Cotterell. Well done Mrs Cotterell (and if you need anyhelp eating it just let me know!)

Many thanks to Swanage Bay Fish for their support.

Test

Here

Who?

Ollie's better half, Kate, has been busy this spring making this awesome chap. He's doing his bit for raising funds during lifeboat week due to having a mystery name...can you guess it?

I for one really want to win him as he is certainly  the most detailed knitted lifeboating I've ever seen.

Thanks Kate...

In days of Yore

Men wore tweed jackets, Oilskins, Kapok (whatever that is) Lifejackets and Sowesters.

I love the detail of old photos...spot the head launcher with the hammer, one dangerous looking chap with a pistol (varey pistol?) and another rather lucky chap with a couple of flags! Somehow these guys look rather heroic and stoical...compare this to our motley crew who turned up to the shout on Saturday wearing board-shorts and flip-flops!

I wonder, would anyone care to date this photo or name the boat? Indeed, does anyone out there know the name of any of the crew?

Interestingly, the building here still forms part of our building and the cobble slipway still exists underneath ours...built to last!

41 pob

And I forgot the dog!

Full up...

just as the Red Arrows finished their routine over the bay our pagers went off once more. This time to a local pqssenger ferry had run aground while scattering ashes.

Once on scene near old harry we began taking all 34 passengers onboard and transferring them on to another passenger boat.  The tally included on old fella in a wheelchair and a babe in arms!

Anyway, they all ended up safely onto one of the Belles and happily on their way. 

Good job...