Well Done SWANAGE !

Its just gone 9pm and Swanage is returning to normal (ish) after yet another excellent Carnival Weekend.

Yesterday the nearest place you could find accommodation was Piddlehinton !

Full credit to the Carnival Association, Council Staff, Emergency Services and the public for making the weekend so good, the spirit was felt by many.

Despite the prediction in fact it was a very quiet day for the Coastguard. The DSO transported a lady to the minor injuries unit at Swanage and the SO dealt with a weever sting in the afternoon.

So if you missed out this weekend, I suggest you come on down to Swanage and find out what you are missing.

Breakfast

This morning we had a Team Breakfast with the Carnival Committee, Police and Ambulance service and Beach Wardens. Some of us had bigger breakfasts than most....

This was his 'second' breakfast.

Busy day predicted........

This weekend

Carnival weekend is probably the busiest two days of the year for the team. A lot of planning goes into the day around who is about and what they will be doing.

Today was busy but behind the scenes a lot more work was being done to ensure the safety of the people visiting the town.

Having started around 11.00am this morning its now 23.19 and the team have returned home ready for day two.

Missing and Found

Swanage Team tasked to search for child missing on the coastal path for 3 hours. 5 search teams deployed, young girl found alive and well after 1 hour.


Busy day so far....

Carnival's Here

Swanage Regatta and Carnival week starts today which means the busiest week of the year for a lot of the townsfolk, businesses, volunteers and emergency services.
The Coastguard team will be out and about all week and will provide safety cover for some of the key events such as the firework displays and Swanage Bay swim.

No doubt Eric will swap his Coastie polo shirt for a bright red carnival one, operating as he does as a dual agent.
Ian and Oz will be manning the official beach hut.
Dee's hoping the B&B will be busy
Rid's probably doing the running stuff again. Goodness knows why.
And the rest of the team will adopt strategic positions in the bar tent in full view of the stage and with easy access to the Curry Monster.

And the breaking news......We're not doing the 'Its a Knockout' this year. Booooo

Hog Roast

Two buns Rockett





So what was going on????

...and why's the boat called Spike? ... Ian will fill you in.

A Seaside Summer!

http://www.seaside-summer.com/

Avoid searches

Portland Coastguard yesterday issued an appeal to maritime users when items are lost at sea please report it to the Coastguard.

This followed several wasted searches last week when items were found at sea and rescue services were deployed to search for a possible missing person.

Looks like a nice day for a Carnival.

Seems the weather has improved a bit this morning. Only a week to go to the Swanage Carnival!

Will the weather be set fair?
Will we be able to join the parade or be tasked to a casualty....like very year.
Will Ian Moustache be joining us again.

Right place, right time

Today's patrol stopped off at Middle Beach to talk to the head National Trust Ranger when he received an urgent call for help at Knoll Beach with a male suffering chest pains.

The patrol followed the Ranger to give assistance and arrived to help search for the male, an ambulance arrived and the male was soon in the best hands.

It goes to show how important patrols, and liaising with our partner agencies is. A smooth operation swung into place as everyone knew their role.

Just a shame we can not do anything about this weather !

Boats

Both Swanage Lifeboats during the training session a couple of weeks ago.

Court Case

Some readers may remember the incident last year when a passenger vessel ran aground at Old Harry sparking quite a large emergency.

Today the incident was brought to a Court in Bournemouth, read the out come

A very different July

Last July saw the team out more or less every day, this year its a different story.

So is it that people are being more careful? Is our accident prevention working? Is the weather making a difference? or is there less people in the area driven by the current financial situation people are currently in?

All I can say I wish we knew so we could plan the cover and response a little better. The above factors affect the volunteers team members just the same as everyone else, especially where full time employment is concerned, no longer does all the team work actually in the town during the day.

Cover

It doesn't take much to work out that 13 volunteers covering 24 hours a day can at times mean due to sickness, holiday, family and work commitments we just don't have the cover we would like.

This is where the Coastguard service relies on the flank stations and in our case the St Albans team to help out.

People may have wondered yesterday what was happening when two teams were sent to an incident but this was purely the case of the St Albans team coming into town to support us.

To provide two people on call day and night is quite a task at times and requires a lot of work behind the scenes (what ever did we do before text messages?). to ensure someone is about.

A torn calf

On my return from work yesterday, one of the team had texted me saying they had torn their calf muscle. My 1st thought was this was Rid who had yet again run the Swanage 12 (Rid why don't you get the bus like we all do?).

Then I thought maybe it was Austen, had his athetlic body let him down?

No it was someone else who had climbed a grass bank and painfully felt it go. So more paperwork and no doubt instructions to insure we are properly "warmed" up before heading out on duty.

(the picture is not to scale and it is not the owner of the injury).

Rain, rain go away....

A rainy, and very windy Saturday in Swanage. Still my hanging baskets need a water so it's not all bad. Looks like the neighbour has the washing out, no doubt that'll be on its way to the Isle of Wight, landing in Yarmouth at about 9:15.

Over near the station a squirrel has just been blown off the fence, no really it has; either that or it jumped sideways.

As its raining, and I can't be bothered going outside, I decided to read the MCA press releases for the week. I was slightly amused at the way they/we describe our 'customers'. In separate articles they were referred to as  a 'man', an 'old man' and ' three lads'.

Next week they might be reporting .....'an old dear', 'some bloke', 'a bunch of jokers' or 'a middle aged chap'

Ooops! I hear cursing outside, ...that sounds like the neighbour has just discovered his pants have blown over to Ulwell Road.

A further Consultation

It was announced yesterday what the future of the Coastguard could be and a further consultation period was set up for the public and partner agencies to comment on the latest set of plans.

If you use the coast, sea and some inland waterways its important you read the consultation documents and make comment on the proposal's

http://www.dft.gov.uk/mca/mcga07-home/shipsandcargoes/consultations/mcga-currentconsultations/consultation_proposals2011.htm

Portland MRCC

Today the government made an announcement concerning the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centres (MRCCs) Our local MRCC is Portland and they do a cracking job.



More later.

Your not volunteers?

On the second incident today at Burlington Chine, we were approached by a lady asking what we were doing?

As is often the case, the lady was confused with the role of the Coastguard and the RNLI so Eric and I set about explaining who did what and how it all worked.

So your full time Coastguards.....er no we are volunteers just the like the RNLI crews, the difference being we are part of a Government Agency and of course the RNLI is a charity.
We think we just about convinced the lady we were volunteers but its difficult to explain with the Coastguard in the press at the moment. There are full time Coastguards (about 400) of them however the Coastguard Rescue Service is made up of 3500 Volunteers.

So as we walked back to the truck another member of the public asked us if that yacht had been caught smuggling or something.....Eric and I looked at each other and started explaining all over again.

Film Stars

We are being shadowed by a film crew at the moment who are making a 'behind the scenes' DVD about Swanage - looking at all the people and organisations that make the town tick.

So after the Studland Beach Wardens meeting we headed off to Middle Beach for a cup of tea and a chance to talk Coastguard

Busy day ahead

On the menu today:

Beach training with the National Trust Wardens at Studland.

Joint Coastguard/RNLI or is it RNLI/Coastguard exercise.....watch this space.

Know your safety equipment

A rescue over the weekend highlighted the need to ensure you know how to use your safety equipment safely!

When the owners of a motor boat got into difficulties, they reached for their phone, only for it to get very wet and it failed

They waved to a passing boat, only to be waved back at!

They went to fire a flare, only to find they were holding it upside down.

Thankfully a passing fishing boat stopped and took them safely on board.

Safety equipment is as it says on the tin.....however ensure you know how to use it in an emergency.

Coastguard : Messages

Wacky Races

With the British Grand Prix this weekend, we take a look at the postition of the team members after the month of June.

Station Officer - 625

Deputy Station Officer - 575

Rid - 450

Tom - 450

Eric - 375

Nick - 375

Brian - 350

Gareth - 300

Paul - 200

Dee - 125

Terry - 125

Mine's Bigger than Yours

Tonight was the inaugural Coastguard v Fire Service 'Who's got the best harness' competition at the Middle School. On balance I think the Coastguard won it, but Ian does look a bit concerned at the Fire Service entry.

Fortunately I left before they started comparing anything else...

One of our helmets is missing

Someone has forgotten to put their helmet back leaving a furry something in its place in the hope we wouldn't notice.

The helmet is part of our PPE - Personal Protection Equipment. Along with the eye protection (large glasses above) its one of the most important pieces of kit we have.

Water Rescue Training

Water Rescue training continued last night down at the "Banjo" jetty. Using our new skills we used several techniques to get the casualty to safety.

We want your details

This morning the team were tasked to investigate a tender washed up on the beach. A lot of Coastguard time is spent chasing the owners of items washed up so we run a scheme called the CG 66 where owners of craft can register their craft so when items wash up a search of the data base can confirm the owner.

This is not big brother stuff, it can and has saved lives when concerned relatives have phoned in concerned for someone but can not remember the vessels details.

Take time to register your boat....

Mind the edge

During yesterdays search we were using the cliff equipment to check close to the edge, however we did have to speak to several people who were sat right on the edge of cliff not realising there wasn't much holding that part of the cliff up.

We aren't trying to stop people enjoying the area, just preventing accidents.

Enjoy the view but stay away from the edge.

Limpets

On patrol today we spotted a group at Peveril Point who seemed to be taking a large amount of limpets off the rocks.
We made a few enquiries about the legalities of taking limpets from the shore only to find in fact they aren't protected.
However they are protected if they are within an area of SSSI and Durlston Bay just happens to be one of those.
This group of six was about 20 metres inside this area so off we went to ask some questions.

So tactfully asking what they were doing and what they had in their bags it was confirmed they had limpets......so I asked what they were going to do with them, "eat them" was the answer, "in Portugal they are a delicacy" oh OK.....(I only thought you went crabbing with them!)

So having just crashed diplomatic relations, it was a case of pointing out they were just inside a protected area and shouldn't be taking any limpet. With a huge apology they stopped and left the beach.

Its not all about rescuing people, sometimes we do our best to protect the environment.

Killer Blue Sky

Blue Sky over Swanage this morning.

Today Swanage will suffer blue sky all day. That's my prediction and I am sticking to it. (It's not killer in any way it's just a cheap way of linking three blogs together).

Oh and our remit is public safety ...so you're best putting sun block on if you insist on wearing a baseball cap backwards.

##Note for the Swanage Coastguard Team - I'm having a BBQ tonight at 18:30 so your pages will go off bang on 18:48. Again that's my prediction and I am sticking to it.

Twister?

Hot on the heels of the Killer Fog photo, our very own Ferry Terry sent us this photo he took on Wednesday from the chain ferry. Is it the start of a twister do you think?

Hang on Terry, weren't you supposed to be driving at the time....?