THE COAST OF NORTH WALES JS QUJCt at the beginning of April with the storms of winter mainly over and the summer still to come. The weather can change in a few moments from bright sunshine to strong hail storms which bombard the magnificent castles like miniature cannon balls. It is only a few weeks before the first holidaymakers arrive and therefore an ideal time to train the crews of inshore lifeboats, whose main concern is the visitors.

Beaumaris lifeboat station has guarded the Menai Straits from the Anglesey side since its foundation in 1891. In 1967 one of the four Blue Peter ILBs was sent there to increase the coverage and this year the inflatable ILB has been replaced with a new Blue Peter II, an Atlantic 21, so that the station's ILB can be operational at night as well as during the day.

The BBC's Blue Peter television team, good friends of the RNLI for many years, were naturally interested in seeing how their new ILB was settling in. Their visit to Beaumaris to film the new Blue Peter II was during 'working up', that is the familiarisation period when the crew and launchers train with their new equipment before it becomes fully operational. This is the time when procedures are learnt and mistakes can be corrected, because when a call for help comes there is no margin for error.

When John Noakes and Peter Purves arrived at Beaumaris the crew had already been at the boathouse for most of the week, taking time off work or working night shifts to be free during the day. That first day was sunny andcalm and, having seen Blue Peter II put through her paces, director Ian Oliver knew just what he wanted to film.

The day of filming dawned dull and rainy although there was an air of excitement around the boathouse.

Everybody had been allocated a job but the real trial was patience as much of the day was spent standing around waiting for a particular sequence to be completed.

John Bubb, the divisional inspector of lifeboats, showed John Noakes and Peter Purves the old and new ILBs and their boathouses and the morning's filming was under way. Each shot was set up with careful positioning of sound, lighting and camera crews and many of the sequences were repeated. The liveliness of John and Peter kept everyone in good humour.

Halfway through the morning a horde of schoolchildren suddenly appeared across the green, like a tribe of Indians pouring over the ridge in a western film. Fortunately the children were friendly and had come to see Blue Peter in action. John and Peter both spent much of their spare moments signing autographs and, when the children had gone away, John relaxed his wrists by learning some knots, splicing and rope tricks from former coxswain Harold Jones.

The morning's events ended with the recovery of the ILB into a net rigged across the launching trolley. All went well, in spite of the fears of one crew member that the boat would end up in the town hall. After all, 10 to zero knots in a few feet needs careful rigging of the net to catch the bows of the boat.

Lunch was curtailed by the arrival of a helicopter from RAF Valley which exercised with Blue Peter II, winching up the divisional inspector. With the helicopter's departure came hail storms which were to play havoc with the cameras. John Noakes donned a wet suit and put out on an air bed while Peter Purves summoned the ILB crew with a maroon and joined them in the 'rescue' of his colleague. Although the rescue was performed by the new ILB, the old Blue Peter II stood by to make sure that John did not encounter any of the dangers of air beds which he was pointing out.

The filming day ended with lifeboat coxswain Bill Pritchard hoisting the RNLI flag outside the new boathouse, but the ILB crew still had a night exercise on their schedule. There is no doubt that whoever chose the expression 'working up' knew what they were describing because the Beaumaris ILB had certainly been working hard all the week.

After one day's filming the crew and launchers of Blue Peter II had won the admiration of the Blue Peter team—and then, the summer season being started, like ILB crews all over the country they turned their attention to the more serious business of saving lives..