Visitor

Look who popped into the station today!

The weather did'nt beat the visit thankfully,so the 16 children of team enjoyed their christmas party.

Watch the ICE !

With further weather warnings around the country, a picture of a little accident in Swanage.

Church Hill in Swanage after a vehicle had crashed through the railings.

Behind me was another vehicle that had slid down the hill and come to rest against a telegraph pole.

Remember only main roads tend to get gritted, best stay off the hills, plan your journey !

Feedback

This afternoon we took the vehicle out to check the area.
In these conditions its important to run the truck as the cold affects the battery and also to ensure its working correctly.
There was some driver training and accident prevention with members of the public.
Seeing the vehicle out it offers reassurance to the public but probably the most important part was checking the various routes. The above picture is the B3351 which is the back road between Corfe and Studland, OK in a 4 x 4 but perhaps not in a normal car?
On completion of the patrol all the information was fed back to the Operation Room (Portland Coastguard) so they could feed this to other emergency services in Dorset to build a good picture of whats happening across the county.

Yet more snow

Yet again Coastguard teams around the country have been called out to assist their local communities.

From the main MCA site

http://www.mcga.gov.uk/c4mca/mcga07-home/newsandpublications/press-releases.htm?id=4DC0BD3C0B389D3F&m=12&y=2010

Barfleur - Cross Channel Ferry

Barfleur

Some good news reported in the Bournemouth Echo.

Brittany Ferries have decided to return the Barfleur cross channel ferry to the Poole - Cherbourg route. Great news for the local economy and everyone that wants to go to France. It'll run from February to September when they'll assess the financial viability of the route. I suppose it's use it or loose it.

Regular readers will remember the Barfleur incident last year when what can only be decribed as 'all hell breaking loose' when we were tasked to what we thought was a young Russian family who had jumped over board the Balfleur Ferry.

Our local MRCC at Portland worked throughout the night to resolve the situation by morning.The incident demonstrated the enormous amount of effort put in by the Watch Officers over at Portland who co-ordinated three coastguard teams, a helicopter and two RNLI lifeboats. Using local knowledge they were able to plot the likely areas of search which grew by the hour while keeping us all safe on the ground. A 5 star effort.

Consulation

We are very grateful to the many people in the last 24 hours offering support or are concerned about the future of the Coastguard in the local area, all we can recommend is that you log on to the MCA website and read the prosposal document in full, then use the online document to ask questions or concerns direct to the MCA.

To help a little with terminolgy and possible confusion about the general term in the press about Coastguard Stations , our station is known as a Coastguard Rescue Station (CRS) staffed by volunteer Rescue Officers. Maritime Rescue Coordination Centres (MRCCs) are the 24 hour rescue centres operated by full time Coastguards. Their role is to take the emergency calls and coordinate the search and rescue assets.

Anyone connected to the sea or coastal users are urged to make comment during this consulation period , log on at

http://www.mcga.gov.uk/

Or click on the direct link on the right hand side of our blog.

Government Announcement

A news story reported by the BBC on the BBC website.

More information from the MCA is available here.

Always on duty

So there I was, enjoying my daughters Nativity play when a local chocolate producing shop owner sitting next to me asks for some advice. "Whats the weather going to do"?

There are some important orders to dispatch before Christmas and its important to know if the orders would get there or not.....so why not ask your local coastguard?

So there we were looking at the forecast on the Internet trying to decide what parts of the country will be affected on Thursday and Friday.

So on Christmas day when you open your presents and you find chocolates, spare a thought for the Coastguard and the part they may have paid in getting those chocolates to the shops.
(find an empty box and no doubt we will get the blame too!)

The joys of being too well known in the town!

Weather Warning

It appears its getting cold again for Thursday with early warnings of rain, sleet and snow.

With the bad weather comes the ice and as this link from the BBC shows the dangers of ice on frozen ponds.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11984017



Again this year the pressures on the emergency services has increased during the cold weather. This includes the Coastguard up and down the country using their 4x4 vehicles and local knowledge to support other services but more importantly their communities.

As this link from the main MCA shows, the Coastguard have been busy in Scotland supporting the NHS.

http://www.mcga.gov.uk/c4mca/mcga07-home/newsandpublications/press-releases.htm?id=D941136A950B1E07&m=12&y=2010

Congratulations to the crews of the helicopter from Stornoway for reaching 200 incidents this year.

Team Work

Another good rescue yesterday with assistance from our friends at Swanage Lifeboat. As always the press are thanking the RNLI and Swanage Team. However as always one group gets forgotten.

Much of the co-ordination for such rescues comes from the watch officers at Portland MRCC who being local themselves know the area well. Last summer a group of the watch team popped over to Swanage ( in their own time) to walk the cliffs to gain further local knowledge; now there's commitment. It means that they have a great understanding of this busy stretch of the Dorset Coast and are able to put that knowledge into use when required.

It's always reassuring on cold dark nights when your up against it to have the team at Portland watching over you and keeping you safe. Thanks if you're reading.