Finally The Sun Came Out

After the heavy rain .......finally the sun shone


Colleagues from St Albans came down to support us and we borrowed the Bosses car for the weekend.


We hope the Carnival managed to collect some donations for their many chosen charities.

Photos from Fridays Multi Service Rescue.

Some photos just before the storm hit....

Cliff Top Rescue Team 1.
Assisted by HART Team and Swanage Fire

Cliff Top Rescue Team 2.
Assisted by Fire Service Rope Rescue

Thunderstorm

As a volunteer Coastguard sometimes you wonder why you do it.

It's dark and four hours into a rescue, you're standing on the top of a sheer 100m cliff with two cliff techs on the rescue line and a thunderstorm rolls in. The rain is torrential. The helicopter is standing off alongside, waiting to assist. Do we stop and run for cover, or do we risk getting hit by lightning and continue to prosecute the rescue?

There is a flash of lighting and an immediate thunder clap and the whole of Weymouth Bay and Portland are lit up in a purply white light for the briefest of moments.  

In that split second you get to see 20 Coastguards absolutely unphased, and the silhouette of our cliff top safety officer Roger Patrick - steadfast - watching out for the safety of the cliff techs below. 

That mental image is the reward.

The teams work through and successfully complete the rescue.

Multi agency rescue at St Albans Head.

The Swanage Team were tasked to back up the St Albans team at Emmitts Hill after a male became trapped under a boulder.

The male had been walking along the cliff when the boulder moved trapping the male by his legs.

The St Albans Coastguard were tasked backed up by the Swanage team just after 19.30. Rescue 106 arrived and started to search for the male , shortly joined by Dorset Fire and Rescue , which included their specialist rope rescue team.

Photos: C Dragatis - Swanage CG Team

Photo: Swanage CG Team

Fire Officers were flown down to the trapped male along with paramedics from South Western Ambulance. The Kimmeridge Coastguard were tasked to provide further support at the location.

Thankfully the male was released by the team at the base of the cliffs and airlifted to Dorchester County Hospital. This then required 9 rescue personnel to be recovered from the base of the cliff and the Coastguard teams went into action.

Rescue 104 was tasked to assist in the recovery of the personnel however a major thunderstorm hit the area and in horrendous conditions the rescuers were recovered with their equipment.

The teams all returned with equipment and rescuers very wet just before 1am.

Rodney and owner rescued from cliff

The Swanage Team along with colleagues from St Albans Coastguard were tasked at 11am to a report of a person and dog stuck on the Down at Swanage.

A member of the public had walked into the NCI lookout at Peveril Point to report their friend stuck having gone down the cliff to get the dog.

The team arrived to find the male from the Reading area about 10 metres down alone with his dog Rodney.

A cliff technician was deployed to stabilise the male from falling and then recovery of both of them.




Nick Field stabilises the male from falling before the teams recovered both the male and dog.




Rodney safely back on the top of the cliff.

Whilst the teams packed up their equipment , another dog further up the Downs disappeared over the edge. Thankfully the dog reappeared but it was nearly another incident.

Please keep dogs on leads near cliff edges and never try and rescue a dog should it go over the cliff - Call 999 and ask for Coastguard.

Climber airlifted from Guillemot Ledge

The Swanage and St Albans Coastguard teams along with Rescue 106 were tasked to Guillemot Ledge just after 6pm.

A climber had been stuck on the head by a rock dislodged by his climbing partner. The climber then fell into a small crevice and was treated to start with by other climbers in the area.

Rescue 106 lowered their winch-man to treat the climber whilst the Coastguard teams set up their equipment. With head and hip injuries the climber was flown to Dorchester Hospital whilst the Coastguard teams stood by whilst the other climbers climbed back to the top of the cliffs.

An Evening at Old Harry

Three teams converged at Old Harry last night for one of the biggest training exercises we have done for a long time. 

We've not trained at Old Harry this year, so it was a chance to refresh our rope rescue techniques on some unfamiliar cliffs and to get used to working with different people.  Coastguard procedures, equipment and training are standard throughout the service and so in theory CROs (coastguard rescue officers) from one team ought to be able to drop seamlessly into another and understand the operation as though they were one of the main team.  And so it was proved, as we worked firstly with Kimmeridge in lowering one of their technicians over the cliff and then with St Albans who had set up their own rope rescue equipment adjacent to ours, giving the unusual sight for the cliff tech of another cliff tech halfway down the cliff alongside him.  Credit to all the teams for the way they were able to mix and match and work so efficiently.



Brian going over the edge. Nick and Steve acting as edge safety officers assist him



The extra long session allowed us to achieve a number of positives: We got cliff tech Brian over the cliff for a refresher and Nick too as he works towards his technician's ticket.   Kerry and Terry worked the lines at the cliff top as they work towards being signed off 'Operators' and Gareth had an extended spell as OIC, allocating roles and ensuring a smooth operation.  We also took a spare coastguard over the cliff with us on one of the descents - in real life, this second (untrained) person might be a paramedic or police negotiator who we'd take down and so it is always a good skill to practice.




 St Albans accompanied descent adjacent to us



Later on we were joined by an ITV film crew and our 'accompanied descent' skills were put to good use when we lowered the programme host on one set of equipment and the cameraman on the other.  With the distraction of a film crew and their interviews and other requirements, there's always the risk of losing concentration, but fair play to Ian and Gareth who ran a tight ship all night and kept the team focussed on the job in hand.



Lots of coastguards. 



No doubt there'll be more on the filming another time, either here or on our Facebook page, - search for Swanage Coastguard.

Climber stuck at Anvil Point Swanage.

Just after 13.30, Portland Coastguard received a 999 call from the emergency phone at Anvil Point stating a climber was stuck at the base of the cliff.

Portland tasked the full Swanage Coastguard team, Rescue 106 from Portland and the St Albans Coastguard to support the possible rope operation.

On arrival at Anvil Point the Swanage team established the location and started to set up their equipment. Rescue 106 arrived and assessed the situation. With the Coastguard Rescue teams on standby the winch man was lowered and secured the climber.

Rescue 106 (The keen eyed will see this is Romeo Delta using the callsign, not Whiskey Bravo)

Having safely recovered the climber to the aircraft the Coastguard set up a landing site to allow the helicopter to land. The climber was dropped off and checked over by the team, before being taken to the Coastguard station to warm up.

Climbers, Climbing Kit and Rock Shoes

We had a busy training session tonight when we were joined by our colleagues from St Albans.

 The main topic was led by John Norman, one of the Ops Room chaps and was a discussion on climbers, climbing techniques and climbing equipment so we are better placed to deal with these kinds of incidents as and when we need to.  John's an experienced climber himself and he brought lots of kit for us to look at and get a feel for.  Sadly, Roger took quite a shine for these yellow rock shoes and we couldnt get them off him.  Well, not the left one, he definitely liked the left one.

Prior to that we had done a refresher on some first aid basics - in this case a simulated spinal injury, including fitting a neck collar, transferring to a stretcher etc.

All in all a very useful couple of hours.  Our thanks to John for coming down and good to train with St Albans too and see some of the guys we don't see very often.

One quick check before we all go home and, oh hang on... yes...there's Roger still with his favourite shoe on.  Gotta give it back Roger.

Double training

Last night the Swanage and St Albans team came together at Anvil Point for cliff training.

Anvil Point is a little challenging for the teams due to the location of the equipment and the fact the edge safety officers are out of sight of the operators.  Communications are vital to ensure the safe operation of the team using radios or whistles

Despite the challenges, both teams stepped up and all was completed safely.

St Albans and Kimmeridge Coastguard had a incident this afternoon which required a helicopter evacuation.

Yesterday training

Our thanks to the St Albans Team yesterday for hosting the training session in condition far from ideal. In fact we actually stopped at one point as it was raining so hard, although one of our local Sector Managers managed to stay dry in the NCI lookout!

With cold and wet team members we headed back to the St Albans station for a debrief, mug of coffee and biscuits!

Round two next Sunday, if John has managed to dry all the equipment.

(Sorry no photos....it was raining to much !)

Back in Action

The team was back in action on Tuesday night, involved in the search for a male who got seperated from the rest of his party on a walk back from Seacombe to Langton. Unlike the clear cold days of the last month, the weather turned damp yesterday with a heavy mist and this combined with failing light, cold temperatures and slippy conditions served to disorientate the walker who ordinarily knew the area well.

When the alarm was raised, the ops team at Portland Coastguard put their extensive knowledge of the area to good use and directed the search which also involved our coastguard rescue colleagues at St Albans and Dorset Police.

The story had a happy ending when the walker turned up after nearly six hours, cold, wet, tired and very muddy, but otherwise safe and well. If you're planning a walk along the coast path over the next few days, take care -after the recent snow, it's very muddy and slippery and when it's dark and foggy and you're tired, lost and alone it's not the best place to be!

Shall we merge?

There was concern for a while when someone up the command ladder suggested merging the Swanage and St Albans teams in one location (probably at St Albans due to the land available). Another idea briefly looked at was moving both stations down to a new joint station at Coombe Corner, thankfully (not an idea I liked!) this plan was scrapped as no land could be identified and we then got assurances that the teams would not merge.
Today the Senior Management acknowledge that both stations are required, whilst only a few miles apart, readers will be aware summer traffic is a nightmare and getting between locations is a problem, both regularly back each other up at cliff incidents (Last Saturday night for example) so its important to leave things as they are.
The good news is whilst Swanage is having a new building, John and his team at St Albans are also having a major refit to bring their station up to date.