Reptilian nights...

The reptiles...one word...awesome!

Distressed damsels...

So the raft race is about to start and the damsels in distress have arrived...what a motley bunch they look (except of course the coxswains wife who looks gorgeous as ever!)

Build a boat!

The ever popular build a boat competition is underway. A dozen our so teams are pitting their woodworking skills against time and a scarcity of materials to build the ultimate 'one sheet boat'. Good luck one and all!

Here we go again...

Another Lifeboat week and the first of out bands 'wasted generation'...going down very well too!

A tight ship...

With one hand on the Tiller, Marcel has everything within reach, exercising with him on his yacht tonight, I was hugely impressed by the level of thought that had gone into creating a practical single-hander.

A lovely Purbeck evening...

Thanks to Marcel for coming out to play with us tonight...a very productive evening spent towing his lovely yacht.

A lovely Purbeck evening...

Thanks to Marcel for coming out to play with us tonight...a very productive evening spent towing his lovely yacht.

Helping out the neighbours...

A quick ILB shout this morning to assist our neighbours, the sailing club, with a few capsized dinghies on Pevril ledge. A quick job, but a good one.

Good old fashioned salvage...

Nothing much changes in the world of ships and shipping. No sooner has a wreck washed up than the scavenging begins...and it's a sad end really for what must once have been a fine looking boat.

Waiting for the boat to come home...

So the boat has been delayed on it's exercise looking for the wrecked hull of a yacht which has been drifting along the Dorset coast for the best part of a week.

This has now been found and brought under tow into safety. Well done boys...

Meanwhile, back in the Boathouse, the boys wait patiently with all the gear ready for the boat to return.

Practice makes perfect...

So, while both boats are away at sea, those remaining behind work through a variety of training scenarios. Tonight this includes a fair amount of practise with the heaving line (trying to hit a bucket). Well done to Roydon who is the only one to manage so far!

Smile...

Every once in a while we have a photograph taken of the crew. Boathouses around the country are full of this sort of thing...mostly sepia toned photographs of men in flat caps and wooly jumpers from the days when men were men and lifeboats had oars.



Today we had a new one taken as there have been many changes to the crew since our last one. Paul(Shilo), one of our resident photographers, generally takes ours and, while he is a great photographer (and excellent gardener), he finds herding lifeboat crew a challenge!



However, despite the freezing cold wind, in a pretty short space of time, he had us licked into some sort of shape and the deed was done. Hopefully it will come out well and, in years to come, we will look back at it and reflect on the crew we were in and the experiences shared.



Incidentally, somewhere in the back row is hidden Gav's lovely young son Harry. We didn't know where else to put him while Kim was pulling the trigger on the camera, so, we hid him behind one or two of the larger crew (I won't mention who!)

All good...

And a happy New Year...

This morning, a dozen or so brave swimmers entered the water for a bracing Christmas Day dip. Generously they each gave a kindly sum to the RNLI. So thank-you all...!

Launch both boats...

After a shout yesterday, it's now looking like a busy bankholiday weekend...not for me though. Both boats have just launched to assist a small yacht caught by a pot rope round it's prop. Meanwhile I am spending the day alone with my kids as Mrs G is taking part in a 12 hour mountainbike race...so no lifeboating for me!

Sometimes life ain't fair

So, over the last 10 days, our crew have spent many tens of hours busy fundraising and doing demonstrations to support the work that they do as volunteers for the RNLI. Imagine then, how gutting it was for Gav to be on his way home from the shout and the lifeboat service on Sunday only to have his bike stolen as he popped into a local shop to grab a pint of milk. Sometimes peoples selfishness and greed defies belief. A hard working volunteer out of pocket to the tune of £1600 just because someone else spotted an opportunity to profit.

So, if you have any information about this please get in touch with me or your local police. It is a relatively rare bike so it would actually be fairly hard to sell on. Please don't let this person get away with this. Thanks...

The youth of today

One of the great things about this years lifeboat week was the number of kids who were around. Everywhere I looked there seemed to be little people  enjoying themselves, taking an interest and having fun. The number present was of course helped by the number of recent babies born to our Swanage lifeboat family. Happy times...

Blooming marvelous

I forgot to mention the results of the annual RNLI window dressing competition. After a number of attempts, our wonderful local florists, Bloom, has won the RNLI window competition. Tor, who owns the business, is a great supporter of the lifeboat and has obviously put a huge amount of effort into her display this year. It even had a boat and a sea safety message...well done Bloom and Tor (and anyone else who was involved)!

For those in peril...

So, in it's traditional way, lifeboat week has come to an end with our lifeboat service on the pier. Typically, the ALB got a shout 20 minutes before the start and missed the whole thing! Never mind though, this was more than made up for by the enormous number of people who had come to take part (helped perhaps by announcements on radio solent and radio 2 this morning).

Our thanks in particular to Ringwood Salvation Army band who played so well for us (they even taught us a new Hymn!)

Only 357 days to go till next lifeboat week!

Coastguard 106

Wahay! One of the great things about lifeboat weekend is getting the chance to work with our local coastguard helicopter. Noisy but loads of fun...

Tribute...

So Tim, who used to be on our crew and now works for the RNLI, has a Honda goldwing, and take a look at the amazing artwork! I love the detail and the fact that it is our boat...nice one Tim.