The Cunning Plan

"So how tall is Ian?" asked Tom.

"In feet and inches, ...or digestive biscuits?" said I jokingly

"Digestive biscuits" replied Tom, calling my bluff.

Not one to have my bluff called I looked at the biscuits in the cupboard and formulated a cunning plan. It was a very cunning plan....a very cunning plan indeed.....to quote Blackadder:-

Gareth and Tom working on their cunning plan (You choose who's who)

Blackadder: Baldrick, I have a very, very, very cunning plan.

Baldrick: Is it as cunning as a fox what used to be Professor of Cunning at Oxford University but has moved on, and is now working for the UN at the High Commission of International Cunning Planning?

Blackadder: Yes, it is.

Baldrick: Mm... That's cunning!

The plan went like this.

(a) Stack packs of biscuits up against the door.
(b) Tom calls Ian to the office.
(c) Gareth takes photo.
(d) Run like hell.

Got Him!

7 Packets of Rich Tea

So he's 7 packets of Rich Tea Tall, or 147 Rich Tea Biscuits in total.
(Reader:- But that doesn't tell us how tall he is in digestive biscuits - which was the actual question!)

Well using the well known european biscuit conversion table this equates 92.3 Standard Digestives or 90.12 Chocolate Digestives.

Windy Night?

Looks a bit windy up north.

Update

The ship in the earlier blog has swung round now, revealing itself to be the Trinity House Vessel Galatea.Galatea is a multi function tender, providing support to the Trinity House lighthouse service in tasks such as maintenance work, buoy deployment, wreck location marking and towing. She is also able to carry out additional tasks such as hydrographic surveying and wreck finding and contract commercial work. Today I see she has a couple of navigation bouys on the aft deck.

Her normal home port is Harwich, so its not hard to see why she'd want to spend a couple of days with us in Swanage.

Christmas Tree

Its another lovely morning in Swanage and I see we have a visitor in the form of this boat moored in the bay. Don't know what its doing here, although I expect someone will tell us.

It arrived yesterday actually and was lit up like a Christmas tree last night. It was also here a couple of weeks ago, stayed for a day and went again.

The answer is:-

Over — I have finished talking and I am listening for your reply. Short for "Over to you."

Out — I have finished talking to you and do not expect a reply. Correct Gold stars!

Over and Out - You can't be over and out at the same time. If you do say this someone will probably laugh / start foaming at the mouth and shouting at the radio.

Roger- I understand what you just said. ...He also lives next door to Ian.

Bye Bye - Heard only once in my coastguard career..."Thank you Rescue 106 for your assistance today, Bye Bye......um out"...followed by a load of good natured abuse from us and then the ops room and helo pilot bursting into laughter.

Access All Areas

One of the purposes of our regular local knowledge and accident prevention patrols is to check access routes. Here's Dee on patrol near Durlston a few weeks ago.

The padlock on this gate had rusted up and needed oiling and a lot of persuasion before it would open. In an emergency we could have found other less subtle ways to open it, but we don't like to upset local landowners! So maintenance is another of our patrol objectives.

Sunday's Weather

A rare event

Every now and then something happens which is too good to miss.
A bit like a visit from Halley's comet , its rare and something to see.

Well one of key supporters has unfortunately lost her voice and the opportunity to see this rare and peaceful event is just too good to see/hear!

We are of course talking about the Deputy Mayor...Cllr. Patrick, often seen drinking tea at the station or arranging lots of people to sign up to facebook and costing me money as the total membership went over 200.

So why not pop along to the Council Meeting on Monday night to witness this key event!

I'm probably now in serious trouble, however we of course wish to send her our best wishes to get better soon.

Search in the rain

Last night Portland Coastguard put the team through its paces in a search at Durlston.

Conditions were far from pleasant however we do have to go out in conditions far from warm and dry. The story was that a man had called his friend to say he was walking in the country park when he started to have chest pains - he failed to call again and his mobile was just ringing out.

Austen was in charge and we were joined for real by the Police as often we work closely on these searches. Two teams deployed and began searching using the thermal camera.

After about an hour the team found the male hidden and then played out the situation presented using first aid and then extraction from a difficult position in very difficult conditions.

Back to the station for hot drinks and a debrief. I am pleased to say the team did very well and proved they were competent to carry out the different searches the Coastguard carry out.

Our thanks to the staff at Portland, Allan, Ros, Malcolm (also known as Poppy the casualty) and John for assisting in this exercise.

Only one problem now......lots of drying out to do now !

Man shot in buttocks by dog.

In non-Coastguard related, firearm wielding dog on boat news.....

"The dog got excited, was jumping around inside the boat and then it jumped on the gun. It went off, shooting the (decoy setter) in the buttocks."

"Neither the dog, which has not been identified, nor any ducks within range at the time of the accident, were injured."