05:57 Bacon Sarnies, Bears and the Zoo

05:57 Stuffed - (Austen is out of shot getting another round of sardines sarnies in).

As the boss is away we all got up specially this morning to have bacon sarnies and a coffee down at the cafe; naturally we put it on his tab. (Actually we had been searching Studland, Worth Matravers and Studland again for  a missing person since 04:24). The missing person has now been found by Dorset Police, excellent.

The lifeboat chaps turned up to the cafe at 06:41. They gave us some good natured abuse about why they had been tasked to search given the missing person had said he was in a wood and could see the sea. They said they were more than delighted to come along to search the wood in their boats; and that this was an even more enjoyable experience given how early it was....or supportive words to that effect.

Apologies to the campers who were actually in the centre of the wood, wild camping. They were rudely awakened by blue flashing lights, the launch of a para-illuminate flare which after a large bang smoked the place out, followed by people with torches shouting...oh and a helicopter overhead. They were foreign and probably wondered what on earth was going on. 

After waking them, Gareth didn't help the matter by teasing the campers that they needed to be careful camping as there were bears in the wood. 'Three of them, in varying sizes' said Eric. On reflection I think they may have believed us. No really i think they did, oops.

On the way back from the search Brian stated that later in the day he was off to the Zoo; Marwell Zoo. This gave us the opportunity at 05:36 to sing 'Going to the Zoo Tomorrow' - an all time favourite Coastguard tune; although technically speaking he was going today.... not tomorrow.  Naturally as Coastguard officers we are trained to adapt to the demands of a situation and changed the lyrics accordingly.

Brian's taking us to the zoo tomorrow, later today,
Zoo tomorrow later today  zoo tomorrow later today
Brian's taking us to the zoo tomorrow later today
We can stay all day.

We're going to the Marwell zoo, Marwell zoo, Marwell zoo;

How about you, you, you?

You can come too, too, too.

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo.

There won't be many times in my life when at 05:34 five grown men in a truck get to sing that song.