IT is THE PRACTICE in the lifeboat service for the divisional inspector of lifeboats to make a formal visit to each of the offshore lifeboat stations in his division once every six months (every three months for ILBs) for the purpose of going afloat with the crew to check their performance of various drills, to discuss with the coxswain any defects in the lifeboat and the replenishment of stores, and to meet the honorary officials of the station to consider matters connected with the management of the station. At the end of a visit, the inspector will enter his comments in the visiting book, and the honorary secretary will ensure that any instructions so given are acted upon. There will be many other occasions when the inspector goes to each station, but the six-monthly visit is the 'set piece', and it is a good opportunity to observe at first hand the way a lifeboat crew, shore helpers and honorary officials all co-operate to provide the service for the saving of life at sea.

That is why on a bright, blustery January day we are packed into the wheelhouse of Cromer's 48' 6" Oakley Mark II lifeboat, Ruby and Arthur Reed.

Coxswain Richard Davies blows his whistle, the lifeboat is 'knocked out' and speeds down the slipway. We are on exercise with the Divisional Inspector of Lifeboats for the Eastern Division, Mike Fennel], who, during the next two hours, will put the crew, their lifeboat and its equipment through their paces.

First conies the drogue, looking like a small canvas parachute, about three feet across its circular opening and tapering to a narrow exit for the water.

A following sea can be powerful enough to lift a lifeboat round broadside on to the waves, and that is when any vessel is most at risk. By streaming the drogue, a considerable drag effect is created, and this will prevent broaching.

The Cromer lifeboat has a speed of nine knots, and with the drogue out this is cut by nearly half. Then the drogue is recovered, and we proceed to the emergency steering.

In the event of a breakdown of the main steering gear, a conventional lifeboat has the facility to ship a tiller directly on to the rudder post, which automatically disengages the wheel steering. This simple method is effective, and with tackles rigged to the tiller, the required leverage is given to make steering manageable by two crew members.

'Man overboard' is next. In the summer a swimmer would go in, but today the coxswain throws the breeches buoy over, and this is done a few times to give several crew members a turn at the wheel to practise positioning the lifeboat so that the buoy can be picked up. While all this activity is going on District Engineer Adrian Whatling is below with Motor Mechanic Ralph Amey checking the twin 110 hp Gardner diesels. For obvious reasons, no marine engines receive better or more regular maintenance than those installed in lifeboats.

Back on deck, members of the crew check all the bilge compartments by attaching a portable pump to the plates that are situated at various points around the deck. Finally, we all retire to the after cabin to lift out the propeller scuttles. These are long, box-like devices which fit flush with the cabin floor. Whenthey are removed, the propellers can be seen below, and it is then possible to clear a screw fouled by rope or polythene with the long-handled blade of the propeller freeing tool.

On return to station, the shore helpers are ready. The lifeboat is moored to a buoy and veered down stern-first to the slipway. A bump, and a haul-up span is put through fairleads in the lifeboat's stern. The winch wire is attached and the lifeboat is hauled up to a point where two heavy ropes attached to rings in the slipway are allowed to take the entire load. Now the winch wire can be removed from the span and attached to the after end of the keel, and the lifeboat is rehoused. An efficient operation, but it is not always so easy. Cromer station is situated at the end of a pier on an exposed stretch of coast, and today's exercise would not have gone ahead at all if conditions had been such that it would not have been possible to rehouse.

The wind was fresh, but it was offshore, and the water around the bottom of the slipway was fairly calm. After many of its services the Cromer lifeboat has to go to Gorleston, and then the crew will have to bring their lifeboat home when the weather improves.

The lifeboat rehoused, the coxswain and the inspector are left to set to work unscrewing each of the drain plugs to the hull bilges (little pours out) and then they go aboard to check the stores. The flares, rocket line apparatus, first aid box, the ropes and the stretcher are in turn examined. The edible stores come in for some attention, for Cromer life boat appears to be very well supplied with powdered drinks. Mike Pennell removes one pack, to be re-issued elsewhere.

'Woe betide you if we run out', says Coxswain Davies. The charts are checked, and Mike Pennell notes that a new copy of Reed's Nautical Almanac is needed. Some items, such as flares, or rockets for the line gun, the inspector may well be able to provide on the spot from his car, but other items will come from the depot at Poole.

Just as we are about to leave, news comes of a Cromer fishing boat that has put out, and concern is expressed.

But after several minutes peering through the binoculars at a distant object bobbing above the waves, and a telephone call to the Coatsguard, it is decided that all is well, and the boathouse is locked up.

The next morning we are off to the Great Yarmouth and Gorleston station, where there will be an ILB exercise in the afternoon, and an exercise on the 44' Waveney, Khami, in the evening. The station has both a 16' D class ILB and an Atlantic 21, and we are out for 90 minutes. Crew members, including a potential ILB crew member, take turns at the controls of both ILBs, and the sea anchor is streamed. We return to the ILB house, where the inflatable is hauled up a ramp on a simple trolley, while the Atlantic is lifted out by a davit and placed on a carriage which rolls back into the house on rails.

At 1730 Coxswain/Mechanic Richard Hawkins takes the wheel for a two-hour exercise on Khami. By now the wind has freshened and it is raining hard. Adrian Whatling is with us, working below with the engines, and he and Mike Pennell are also concerned with interference on the medium frequency radio, which affects direction finding. We have already anchored, so the engines, and all other equipment, can be switched off to see if the source of the interference is on board. But it persists, and so further attention will have to be given to the matter by the RNLI electronics staff.

Under way again, the emergency steering is set up. On the Waveney this consists of an L-shaped bar fitted into either of two plates on the after deck.

Then comes a first-aid drill, in which a crew member becomes a casualty with a broken leg and suspected spinal damage.

He is securely strapped into the stretcher and carefully passed down into the after cabin, the crew all the while answering the inspector's questions on first aid.

To finish the exercise, we have a 'blind' return to harbour, using the radar. But a radio message from Gorleston Coastguard asks for the ILB crew to stand by—somebody is in trouble up river on Breydon Water. So the radar approach is terminated and we make all speed for home. No sooner are we back than both ILBs are heading up river, to return half an hour later with two bedraggled youths whose hired cabin cruiser had grounded and been holed. A crew member makes overnight arrangements for them. Hardly a great sea rescue, but it gives a glimpse of the devotion of these men, some of whom have been on exercise for more than five hours.

Meanwhile, the divisional inspector has gone to talk to the potential crew member, and then comes his stores check with the coxswain who asks for overalls for his crew. Mike Pennell points out that the RNLI provides one set for the mechanic only: 'We're not a benevolent society.' Richard Hawkins grins and presses his claim, only to receive a lecture on the need for economy. Mike divides stores demands into two categories: 'must have' and 'nice to have'.

Farewells are said, we make a quick visit to the Coastguard station, and then head for the Pennell home, where at 2200 there is a welcome hot meal..