It's Dry

Readers will know that since the station was built we have always had a little puddle out the front of the building due to a couple of small springs.

Well the Town Council have been carrying out some work in the car park and the water seems to have stopped !

Drawing a line

Some maintenance on the station has been carried out during the last few weeks.

We now have some new bright yellow lines and a flood barrier installed.

Casualty of the storm

The large tree to the rear of the station had to be cut down before it fell on neighbouring properties.

Thanks to the Town Council for sorting the tree out.

A little bit of history

Photo courtesy of Dr M Aryes - Swanage Town Council

Some time ago I asked via the blog if anyone knew what was originally at the site of the new Coastguard Station at North Beach Car Park.

Well there I was in the Town Clerk's Office and there on the wall........a picture of North Swanage and the development of De Moulham Road.

The picture shows De Moulham Road with allotments and the development of Bonfield Avenue around 1920, perhaps?

The site of the future station is just waste ground? It doesn't even appear to be farm land.

The stream doesn't seem to exist let alone the car park.

Water Water every where

High Tide at North Beach Car Park, its not meant to do this?

Hot Tub

Finally after weeks of waiting, contractors returned to the station to fit our new "hot tub".

We felt the garage had room for this addition feature and with enough points saved on the Nectar Card we ordered the all singing and dancing hot tub.



Pictured above the base being prepared

Crime Scene

On my way home last night, I popped to the station just as the IRT were leaving the station after the surfing incident. 1st of all I caught them out as they didn't notice me in the car, I heard the shout "watch out the boss is here!".
Then having been away for a week I thought I better check the station, and found this strange scene on the floor in the garage, had the team being playing cluedo whilst I have been away?
One thing for sure, whilst we wait for a little bit of the floor to be done, our kit boxes have been muddled up and this could explain the clothing all over the place.

Update

Sorry for the lack of blogs this week, but we have been busy at the station.

For those of you using the recycling centre at the Car Park,you will have noticed the a large container and the vehicle parked outside the station for the last two weeks.

The main task here was to cover the garage floor and stop it being so dusty.

The special coating ready to go down, the garage had to be striped out of all the equipment, whilst the stuff was laid.

Thankfully every thing is back in now

A year on

Today is one year on from the start of the new building (can we still call it new?)

Exactly one year ago today, the contractors turned up and put the fencing up to start the project.

How time flies but we move on and hopefully over the winter there will be some minor things done to the station to improve it even further.

The toilets although nothing to do with the Coastguard other than being part of the building need to be resolved and we shall be pressing the relevant people so we don't get the mess we have been have around the back of the building.

The garage floor will hopefully be coated with a resin so it can be swept or washed out, and then some minor repairs here and there.

One thing we have noticed is the number of visitors we get popping in which is great, no one ever came in at Peveril Point, perhaps the recycling site has its advantages up there???

New feature

Well folks, after a year of planning, Swanage got another brief attraction at North Beach car park,

Yes a boating lake........

Thankfully CRO's Thompson, Simmons, Station Officer and Deputy Station Officer found the plug and the water went down as quick as it came up.

Higher...lower

Last night Austen and I attempted to put the notice board up outside the station; while Ian gave advice as to the height it should be mounted. He is the boss.

“Higher…Lower….Higher…Lower…” …..it was like Bruce Forsyth’s Play Your Cards Right.

“What do points make?…prizes!”

Good game - good game….we managed to get the notice board up straight and at a height that Ian can use it!

No doubt he’ll fill it full of informative stuff.

Station jobs

Yesterday Ian worked out that if you stand on things you look taller.

....and Austen managed to put a sign up straight.

Or did he?

Flushed

At the end of our building there will be some public toliets. There has been a few problems with the "pods" but hopefully the repairs will be done shortly to get them into service.

These toliets have nothing to do with the Coastguard and belong to the Town Council, its been interesting the number of people knocking on the door asking us to open the toilets, well sorry we can not, the nearest public toliets are at Beach Gardens or at Battlemead for the time being.

Paper work

Some of you may remember the desk at Peveril Point?

There was about a dozen files (damp & covered in black soot!)

Now 4 months on, big sort out and a few projects started.....

And its growing......(The number of files not the cabinet!)

How to put up a rack?

How many Coastguards does it take to put up the new clothing racks?

Well 3 and it was hard work.

Austen and I got to the station to assess the situation, kettle on.

Decide what height to put them at......based on the Station Officer being short, cant put them too high.

Thinking time.......make coffee, eat biscuits!!!!. (But not the Station Officer still serving the ban)

1st one up.......

Mr and Mrs Kitching arrive to assess the situation, Mrs K allows Mr K an hours pass to play.

With the extra person and a tall one at that, the whole process has to be reconsidered.

The jobs as follows.

Gareth, holds up said frame, Austen marks holes and then drills holes, Ian tucks in low and holds the dust pan to catch the grit and slips in the raw plug. Gareth back up with the frame and Austen using the screw driver, drives them in. Mean while Ian back on the printer, printing name tags out. A formula one team would have nothing on this slick team.

Not a bad job, this replaces the 14 coat hooks the team were given, (the team brought the racks themselves). Slightly better for kit and tidies up the station well.

The Plaque

The story behind the mountain rescue plaque......(as told to me so I hope this is right!)

A long long time ago

in a galaxy

far far

away

....sorry that's another story....

Back in the 70's(ish) there were "rescue posts" around the country, the equipment supplied by regional or local groups as well as the Coastguard and the Police.

Back then rescues were coordinated by both the Police and Coastguard and as time went on the Police handed over the rescues to the Coastguard, at Anvil Point there was one such "rescue post" and when the Police handed over responsibility the "post" was transferred down to the Coastguard station at Peveril Point.

The benefits of these posts were that some equipment was supplied by the regional mountain rescue organisation and for many years the Swanage team were supplied a stretcher until the Coastguard supplied a stretcher in the 1990's. We are not allowed to have equipment supplied by an out side organisation anymore but we still maintain links with our Regional Mountain Rescue association as its a useful forum to share information. When we moved we transferred the plaque (having cleaned it up 1st) and are proud of its history and our links to other units.

Ring Ring

There was a strange noise at the station today............it went "ring ring ring".


It took us sometime to work it out, a clue was the BT van outside the station.


Oh yes its the phone, finally we got connected again!


Another job off the list, hopefully got a few visitors to the station tomorrow including the radio engineer to "tweak" the radio equipment.

The New Mast

The new mast arrived yesterday.

Some more photos in the next few days

Its not all glamour

Team goes out and rescues someone........well behind the scenes there has got to be a lot of work just to get the vehicle and station ready to do that, and some of the jobs are not pleasant.

Here Austen aka the Deputy Station Officer, lifts the drain covers up at the front of the station.

And discovers the drain is full of mud!

Nice!

Having cleaned the drains, he then appeared under my desk! (I was doing the end of month paper work and drinking coffee ((I think they call it supervising?))
And just in case you think your eyes are going funny, Ive "smudged" the back of his T shirt....it had something on it that was a little rude for our site!!!!

The Coastguard Prayer

Going back to the official opening, we invited Rev. John Wood from St Mary's Church to bless the new station.

Now there is a Coastguard Prayer, sadly on the day we had mislaid it but Rev Wood filled in the gaps!

So Father, we pray for all those who staff our Coastguardservice, and man our Naval, Merchant and Fishing Fleets; allthose who work in our ports, all lifeboatmen, and for thewhole great family who go down to the sea. Keep themsafe from danger, teach them to know You through thewonders of the deep, and help them to do their duty withkindness, loyalty and faith. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.Amen
Go forth into the world in peace; be of good courage;hold fast that which is good; render to no one evil forevil; strengthen the faint hearted; support the weak; helpthe afflicted; honour all people; love and serve the Lord,rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Blessing
The blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son and theHoly Spirit, be upon you and remain with you always.
Amen