Walker Injured on Coast Path

At 2pm yesterday,  the volunteers of Swanage and St Albans Coastguard teams were back in action,  just 12 hours after closing down the previous cliff rescue.

On this occasion a young lady had slipped awkwardly on the SW Coast Path between the Western Mile Markers and Dancing Ledge; in doing so she had injured her ankle badly and was unable to walk.

Accessing via the tracks near Verney Farm, the teams stabilised the lady, monitored her condition and kept her warm.  With no ambulance available, the responders from Dorset & Wiltshire Fire & Rescue brought in pain relief and the Coastguard helicopter was summoned to evacuate the casualty. However, on arrival the mist had descended so low that the helicopter was unable to land and had to return to base.

We always have a 'Plan B' to cover all eventualities, and with light rapidly diminishing and temperatures falling, the lady was soon conveyed by 4x4 (many thanks to the National Trust for your help) back to the Farm where an ambulance was by now standing by to take over her care.

Another good example of multi - agency working and being responsive to a changing situation. We wish the lady a speedy recovery.

#AlwaysOnCall
#ItsWhatWeDo

Familiar Signs

A few years ago, HM Coastguard undertook a project to install location markers with grid references throughout the full 630-mile length of the South West Coast Path between Minehead and Studland.

The plaques were installed by the local teams and we did several in our patch, stretching from some at Durlston Country Park right the way through to the end of the path at Shell Bay (or the beginning, depending on which way you are going!)

Whilst on holiday in Cornwall last week, one of the team spotted some of the familiar signs in place near St Agnes.

Peveril is back in Swanage

Readers may remember the blog ...."Take a Letter" where the new sign posts at Peveril Point actually gave a position off Exmouth.

Well it appears the man from the Council did respond to my phone call.....

With a sharp chisel, wood glue and some off cuts....the "SY" has turned into the correct "SZ" !

Looking Back

The answer you were all waiting for: SZ 028 769, just west of the lighthouse. Using an 8-figure reference SZ 0275 7688 would be more accurate but for the purposes of finding incidents to within 100m accuracy, the 6-figure reference will be perfectly adequate.

This is what it looks like looking back the other way:

Grid Reference Location Competition

Last week I put a Coast Path photo up, asked if anyone could identify it where it was, and then I promptly forgot all about it. Our postbag was bulging with a reply from a Mrs Trellis from North Wales.

Thanks to Barry from Essex who correctly identified it as Swanage - good work Barry! - and well done to our anonymous responder who got the grid ref pretty well spot on. The one we'll be using is SZ 033 077 - Its on 'Isle of Wight Road' - the path up to Durlston Country Park which should soon be once again fully open, having been partially closed during renovation works at the Castle.



Here's another easy one to have a go at...
Answer will follow in a couple of days....if I remember

Mystery Sign

This is one of the locations where we'll be attaching an aluminium SWCP sign, and its also the picture that didn't load properly yesterday.

But can you work out where it is? Better still, what's the grid reference?

Sign of the Times

As we mentioned last week, we've been involved in a project that will see 2500 aluminium signs, each giving a location and OS grid ref, installed along the 630-mile long South West Coast Path.

Mick Cooke of Brixham Coastguard, who came up with the idea, said: “The sooner the Coastguard arrive at the scene of an accident, the better the likely outcome for the casualty, so these little signs could help save a life.” The SWCP website recently ran a feature to mark the 500th sign.

There will be about a dozen signs in the Swanage area and so far we have visited each location to check the grid reference is correct and also to check there's something physically there to nail them on to. The signs are currently being manufactured and we'll soon be installing them.

I've tried to put some pictures up of some of our locations, but blogger doesnt want to play today. Maybe next week. In fact, I'll put a few up - see if you know where they are.