Purbeck Fun Day

Sorry for the short notice but today is Dorset Police's Fun Day

Held at the Purbeck School Worgret Road Wareham, the Police Fire, Coastguard and other services will come together to meet the public.

So if you have a spare hour why not pop up and meet us between 10am and 3pm

(We shall be there from about 1.30 subject to being required somewhere else, Kimmeridge Coastguard will be there this morning)

I see no ships

Richard Curtis, known to us as Rid.

Not many at Rid's age give up their time so much to do a voluntary job.

Still studying at college, and working part time (plus all the other things a young chap gets up too but probably best leave that off here!!!)

Rid's about halve way through his training and making steady progress, attending some of most difficult incidents this year.

Monitoring

On Monday, we were called to Studland to monitor a yacht with engine failure, before the Lifeboat arrived.

Looking at the weather conditions we had the slightly easier task of just driving along the beach monitoring the Poole Lifeboat and yacht until they safely arrived in the harbour.

The National Trust staff kindly delivered a cup of tea to us whilst the lifeboat attached the tow line, and I suppose holding a cup of tea whilst driving along the beach was the nearest we got to the crew of the lifeboat in the difficult conditions. (I never spilled any and just to confirm I was not driving at the time!)

U.F.O

Whilst on patrol today we spotted something in the surf....was it a rock? a bomb? no this was a unidentified floating object!

Having got the boat hook out the vehicle, timed the waves right, quick dash in and pull.

O its an old lobster pot, still left there a small boat could have hit it.

Er..you don't get in it that way???

In fact we were saving the lives of several crabs that had been caught up inside the pot which by the looks of it had been in the water for sometime.

Nurse!

The team underwent their MCA Medicals yesterday.

Following the usual height, weight, blood pressure, eyes, and ears assessments we were asked to do something different??? The mind boggles at this point. The nurse requested that we do what can be only be described as a ‘little dance’ in front of her- a bit like the Can-Can really! Apparently this was to test our ‘range of movement’.

Now normally I don’t mind a little boogie at the end of the night but at 9:30 in the morning I wasn’t sure. Unfortunately for me, Austen had turned up who thought my whole performance was side splittingly funny, so much so that he sat there convulsing with laughter but not actually making a noise.

Anyway, the whole team passed their medicals / dance assessments , so well done chaps…perhaps we should do the Can-Can at the carnival?

One very lucky chap

Old Harry Rocks, beautiful place....but of course those cliffs can be dangerous. The man who fell today was lucky not to be killed, over the years we certainly have attended incidents in this location and the result very different.

The crew of Rescue 106 did a wonderful job and managed to pluck the male to safety and then on to hospital, he certainly has some injuries.

Just in case you can not see the winchman, same picture again .

Bank Holiday Weekend

Another Bank Holiday and the weather looks like being wet and dull.
Well I'm sure it will not put everyone off visiting the area or taking to the water.

Are you looking a bit pale?

The Bank Holiday weekend is meant to be a time of rest, sadly we have the added pressure of all going for a medicals!

The Coastguard Agency has started a program to check all their Coastguard Rescue Officers (just over 3000 of us) to ensure we are fit for the role.

To be honest, this is no difference to the other emergency services and other employers, its their "investment" in us.

As you can imagine, some of us are feeling a little nervous about the process.....lets hope she warms her hands first!

School talk season

Today saw the 1st school talk of the year, 52 children visiting both the Coastguard and Lifeboat House.

Assisted today by my able deputy Austen and with a small input from Eric, the children got a insight into our world.

You will note the posh flooring that is laid specially for the school talks, we like to ensure our guests have a little comfort.

Yacht ashore

Interesting sight this morning on the main beach, a yacht! It appears over night it came off its mooring and came up on the beach.

The team kept an eye on it during the day and heard that it was going to be pulled off around high water at 20.00.

As it was training night we moved to the patch of land where the weather station is (next to Sandpit field) not only could we use the slope to practise the rope work, but also monitor the attempt.

Swanage Diver and the crew of the yacht (plus a few members of the public) did a good job and managed to re float the yacht which was escorted around to Poole.

We hopefully will add a photo in a day or so.