Aground 2

Don't panic the Solent Scene didn't run aground again! In fact I believe the vessel was back in business having been checked out by surveyors on Sunday.

Being a commercial vessel there will be an official report carried out by the MAIB - Marine Accident Investigation Board and this will be published in due course.

Thankfully on Saturday the weather was being kind, and following the incident the crew of the vessel informed the Coastguard who launched the lifeboats and sent the Coastguard team.

It goes to show the point of all the training the services do as the evacuation of the passengers went very smoothly and I think it should be noted despite their ordeal the passengers were all very good and grateful.

One of the passengers asked me as they got off the Bournemouth Belle, "Does this happen often"? my answer......1st time Ive done this in twenty years does that answer your question!

Was it busy?

During the Red Arrows, the "Downs" got a little busy......hence we carried out some "training" in that area to ensure everyone stayed safe.

Lots of people mixed with cliff edges plus people looking up, leaning back to get that picture and it could get a bit messy!

Thankfully out of the couple of thousand people on the Downs the only casualty was my own daughter stung by a bee!

I think we all have to thank the carnival committee for a very good week.

(yet again someone got in my photo, it getting like those books ......where's Wally!)

Aground

A major incident has just had both Swanage Lifeboats, Poole Lifeboats and the Swanage team respond to a passenger boat aground off Old Harry. 35 passengers were taken off the craft by Swanage Lifeboat and transferred to another vessel who had come to assist.
All passengers are now safe and well in Swanage. Full details will follow.

Crabbing

It was the team crabbing competition this week, Rockett, Craker and Simmons the front runners for the trophy.

The chaps were a little upset to hear the winner of the Carnival Competition had pulled in a massive 56 crabs, yet they couldn't see a thing down the quay and Brian had only brought a small pink bucket.

The good thing was we only lost Tom once during the day, a sharp young chap returned Tom to the MRU saying "Hey is he with you?", we have now put him on a piece of string so he doesn't get lost.

Just one thing chaps......where was your PPE? (Personal Protection Equipment)

Burglar Alarm = Job

I ran over the station earlier as someone had set the burglar alarm off, it transpired that Nick our newest member had forgotten the code. Rather than get flustered he left the alarm to ring and got into his Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) as we had a job.

Shortly afterwards Austen turned up and we were off to Knoll Beach Studland to assist South West Ambulance with a spinal injury and ensure the air ambulance could land safely. On the way Nick put his radio comms training to good use advising Portland of our position.

On scene and the casualty was moved to the heliciopter for the short hop over to Poole Hospital; as ever our thoughts are with the casualty.

Above: Nick in Full PPE

Meanwhile Tom turned up to assist and provided an impromtu training session. Today's lesson was how to find Tom's mobile phone that he had dropped in the sand. As they set about looking I went and asked a National Trust Warden whether it had been handed in.

The warden confirmed it was a battered, knackered old thing covered in paint and well passed its sell buy date and that we should replace it.

"The Phone or Tom?" I asked.

Above: Tom reunited with phone.

Obviously not one to stop a good training session I left them to search.

Lead by example

On carnival day, the DSO wanted to be noticed......

Despite being told off by both the SO and Assistant-DSO he wasn't having it.

Will they? Won't they??

After last year's trouble securing the Red Arrows it appears there may be a problem for Saturday!

Do hope not as they are rather good!!!!

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The BBQ (and the secret chef)

The secret of any BBQ is the food and this year I managed to persuade someone else to cook for us instead of my usual burnt offerings. The rumour that no one was going to turn up if I cooked again just wasn't true!

So checking the team list .......I confirmed no one could cook so I had to look a little further.

Thankfully we found someone really good, it's just he's from another rescue service and to protect his identity we said we wouldn't show his face. (even though he's wearing a Lifeboat T Shirt)

Its funny as we have also used him as a casualty (simulating a mountain bike injury) last year... this partnership stuff really does work.

We would also like to point out that the fleet of ambulances outside the station (as featured yesterday) had nothing to do with his cooking.

Was there a problem at the station?

During the BBQ last night, was the team taken ill?

Did Ambulance hear we were having a BBQ and that there were Burgers left over.

Who is the infamous 'Swanage Poisoner'..

And why does Gareth always try and get in my photos?

Stay tuned.

Partner Working

During the week, we attended the study centre at Studland and along with the Police had an training session with the National Trust staff.

The main topics were

Search management - How we would all work together during a search at Studland

Helicopter operations - How to land a helicopter

Water Rescue - As can be seen above.

A really good session which goes to show how much work goes into keeping this area as safe as we can.