Have a safe New Years Eve

As the last few hours of 2017 tick past , the team would just like to take a moment to say thank you.

Whilst we are all volunteers , we couldn't do what we do without the support of our families , friends and the community.

So thank you , those cups of tea and support is really special to us.

A special Thank you to our colleagues in the Police , Ambulance , RNLI , DorSar and Fire who we have all worked with during 2017.

Enjoy your celebrations but our tip of the day is " stay out the sea ". Alcohol and the sea ( water) don't mix especially when Storm Dylan is about.

Happy New Year .....

Concern for welfare in the Swanbrook

A report of some people and loud bangs in the outlet of the Swan brook by the Mowlem saw the team deployed to investigate.

The brook flows through the town and mostly underground and with the recent rain it’s deeper than normal.

On arrival a nearby resident confirmed the pair had safely made it back out , the bangs where plastic bags being popped but echoing around the culvert.




The brook is mostly under ground and we recommend it’s not an area to explore or play in.


The sides are very slippery with a deep hole at the opening to the sea.

Whilst it looks a place to explore or hide our advice is to stay clear. Water levels can suddenly increase without warning.

999 Coastguard

Dumped Canoe

A post Christmas patrol to run the Coastguard vehicle spotted a submerged canoe just off the pier.

With a risk that someone could have been in it , the Coastguard requested the RNLI inshore crew to pick the craft up and bring it ashore.

On Collection it was obvious it was an old craft and believed it had recently been dumped around the stone quay.




The Coastguard will investigate calls of submerged craft to ensure persons are not at risk.

Please ensure your craft is left secure , don’t dump anything at sea and if you lose a water craft tell the Coastguard - it can save wasting valuable resources.

999 Coastguard

Team wins an award !

We are very proud to announce that our blog won an award.

Dorset Holiday Cottages run a competition for the best blog in the Purbeck area and this year they chose ours !





So on behalf of the team can we thank Dorset Holiday Cottages and apologise we missed the official presentation night.

Our blog has been running since 2008 when our new station was built and since then tracked the incidents and team members here in Swanage.

Have a safe and merry Christmas

We wish all our readers a safe and happy Christmas.

We are on call throughout the holiday period and ready to work alongside our emergency service colleagues.

If you are heading out during the festival period , check the weather and ensure you wear the right clothing.

In a Coastal emergency dial 999 and ask for the Coaatguard.

Team tasked to Nine Barrow Down.

The team had a call yesterday that a radio engineer was on the way to investigate a fault at our remote aerial site.

Due to the location there was a request to use our 4x4 to get to the site so the team headed out at 1.30 am this morning.

Our aerial sites are an important part of the Coastguard communication network so it's important to ensure any issues are resolved very quickly.

With the work done everyone got back at 4am.

The Best Blog in Purbeck - 2017

This very blog won an award yesterday - it was voted 'Best Blog' in the 2017 Best In Purbeck Awards.

Organised by Dorset Holiday Cottages, the awards celebrate Excellence on the peninsula where we live and they cover a variety of categories including Best Place to Eat, Best Attraction, Best Event and Best Local Producer.  Thanks to the organisers for arranging the competition, and it was particularly pleasing to win as we didn't even realise we had been entered - we may have had a dozen mire votes had we known!

Our friends at Purbeck Footprints came in second place in the blog category - well done Julian, but I suspect you probably needed to include a few Coastguards to make your pictures stand out a bit more.

Incidentally, the blog started out in 2008 to document the build of our new station in North Beach car park, but has since shifted focus to reflect daily life for the volunteers in the team. This post is the 3,252nd post since we started!

I've Started so I'll Finish....

The team held its Christmas Quiz last night - this is a light hearted way to wrap up the year's training by testing knowledge on a few Coastguard related topics.

Not actually sure who won, but I don't think we'll be on Mastermind any time soon.  Pointless, possibly!

A good time was had by all and thanks to the NPT for popping in and providing some security - these things can easily get out of hand!

Coastguard? Dial 999

Earlier this week we had a message via our Facebook page from a lady concerned that a boat in the bay may have been on fire.

 

We don't monitor Facebook 24/7 whereas the UK Coastguard Operations Centre is manned day and night, 365 days of the year, but fortunately we did happen to see this message come in so we wrote straight back asking the lady to contact the Operations Centre on 999 to give full details.
The normal route is for them to then task us by pager or phone if they want us to respond.

 

All the same, we spoke to the cox'n at the Lifeboat Station where there is a better view to sea and contacted the Ops Centre  as well.  The Ops Centre  located the vessel on AIS and gave it a call to check all was well - turns out they'd just started their engines which were just a bit smoky when cold and there was nothing to worry about.

 

The lifeboat cox'n sent us a photo through their binoculars of the vessel in question.

 

 

With all loose ends tied up, we stood down and recorded a FAWGI - false alarm with good intent, and we'd like thank the member of public for raising the alarm.

 

However, please, in an emergency or if you see someone in trouble, or who appears to be in trouble on the coast or at sea,  you should always call HM Coastguard on 999.

  

Facebook is good - but it's not a substitute for 999.

The story behind the Incidents

This morning just before 7am an off duty lifeboat crew member contacted the Police and Coastguard concerned for a person at Buck Shore.

The NMOC immediately tasked the team who were on route in just over 10 minutes from being paged.

Working together and using local contacts and knowledge, the team met up with the lifeboat crew members and quickly started searching the town where the person was last seen.

Thankfully the team located the person in the high street and quickly got them home to their family providing some first aid whilst the Police arrived.

Working together and an early 999 call to the emergency services saw someone safely back at home. - thank you to all those involved today.

Terry the Tech

The team headed off today to Old Harry for some rope training.

Terry has been training for a while now and today he was up in front of our Senior Coastal Operations Officer for his assessment.




Terry and the team were put through their paces in different scenarios.


Terry Working down the cliff to put the training dummy into the stretcher.


A very happy Terry having just passed all his assessments.


We also managed to get Steve and Jonny through their Operators qualifications so well done to the whole team for their efforts and thank you to Allan for his help and guidance.