Three saved — • , — --. -—— from grounded yacht in rojjgh conditions The three crew members aboard St Bees' Atlantic earned a letter of thanks from Michael Vlasto the RNLI's Chief .of Operations following a difficult service to the yacht Supenramp which was aground in the entrance to Whitehaven Harbour in a near gale from the west.

The yacht had been on passage tro Scotland to Whitehaven when her skipper misjudged the state of the tide at her destination and she grounded in the entrance to the harbour. With a westerly Force 7 blowing she was in danger of breaking up, and had her crew been washed overboard they would have been in grave difficulties The lifeboat station was informed of the situation at 1452 on 5 May 1998 and the Atlantic 75 Percy Henry Patmore MBE MM was launched a little over ten minutes later for the seven mile passage to the casualty.

At 1522 the lifeboat arrived at the scene to find the yacht well aground in very shallow water and bumping heavily on some rocks. The Coastguard ashore had managed to get a line to the vessel to prevent her being driven further ashore, but there was a great danger that her three crew might be washed overboard by the breakers.

The lifeboat was grounding repeatedly, but by putting both engines in the full 'tilt' position helmsman Malcolm Cavanagh wasable to reduce the draft enough to get the Atlantic between the yacht and the sea wall, to leeward of the casualty- Manoeuvring with the engines fully tilted was extremely difficult, but once in position the crew were able to help the three survivors aboard the lifeboat and take them ashore.

With the crew safe, the lifeboat returned to the yacht and was able to refloat her on the rising tide and bring her into the harbour.

The Atlantic was damaged by the continual pounding on the rocks and both engines also suffered in the encounter. As it would have been unwise to return by sea the lifeboat was recovered at Whitehaven and taken back to her station by road using the tractor and trailer. She was repaired at St Bees and put back into service later that night.

The lifeboat Atlantic 75 B719 Percy Henry Paimore MBE MM The crew Helmsman Malcolm Cavanagh Crew members Alan Sewell and Raymond WilkinsonFire aboarcLSpanish cargo vessel Lifeboats and their crews are often called on to work with the other emergency services and that includes the Fire Service when their work takes them beyond the range of their land-bound appliances.

Margate's Mersey Leonard Kent was involved in just such a service on 20 June 1998 when she was called out to stand by Pans, a Spanishregistered cargo ship which had a fire in her machinery space.

Although not a dramatic service the lifeboat and her crew were still at sea for more than five hours following a 1527 launch at the request of the Coastguard, and their _ - _ presence was invaluable.

After a 30-minute passage to the ship the lifeboatmen found her anchored and 'dead' with visible heat damage to her funnel and the surrounding accommodation. The only radio communication was with the pilot on a hand-held VHP set, enabling contact to be established with London Port Control and a tug despatched.

The ship's CO2 extinguishers had been discharged, although it was not certain that the fire was out, and the lifeboat stood by until a fire crew had been brought out by helicopter. Once the firefighters had ensured that the fire was out and a tug had arrived the Mersey was able to leave the scene-taking the firemen ashore and landing them at Margate.

Parachutist saved - with dry feetj Clacton lifeboatmen were involved in a most unusual service on 27 June, when they rescued a young woman parachutist while she was still airborne! The station's Atlantic 21 was called out when a speedboat towing an airborne parachutist capsized and sank in Martello Bay.

Lifeboatmen Dave Wells, Mathew Harrison and Tim Sutton were on the scene within minutes of the 1324 launch and found that the driver of the boat had already been picked up.

However although the boat had sunk, the towing line to the parachutist was still attached - and the strong and gusty SW wind was enough to keep the parachute 6ft to 12ft in the air! The lifeboatmen positioned the Atlantic under the parachute and at the first opportunity grabbed the pair of legs dangling above them. Trying to haul the young lady down against the lift of the 'chute was far from easy, but eventually they managed to bring her down into the Atlantic.

Now all they had to do was hold her down to keep her in the boat while disengaging her harness - a task which they eventually managed - allowing the parachute to fly away, deflate and eventually drop back into the sea.

The crew came ashore smiling broadly at their new experience, bringing with them a very relieved young lady who, although wearing a buoyancy aid, was a non-swimmer and who had definitely not been looking forward to the prospect of a ducking! Tragedy as five are swept overboard from charter ya cht A short but difficult search for survivors from a yacht which had been knocked down in the entrance to Tynemouth harbour has earned three of Tynemouth lifeboat's crew letters of thanks from the RNLI's chairman and the remaining two crew members letters of appreciation from the Director.

The 45ft yacht, Signature, had been on a corporate hospitality trip on 3 April 1998 and was knocked when down returning to the harbour in the early afternoon.

Although the wind had dropped to Force 3 from the east it had been blowing at around 55 knots throughout the previous night, and the swell running in to the harbour against the ebb stream was so spectacular that people had gathered to watch it pound against the piers. Seas around 35ft high were breaking across the whole width of the harbour entrance Tynemouth's Arun George and Olive Turner slipped her moorings at 1313, only six minutes after the Coastguard alerted the station, deliberately sailing one man short because of the urgency of the situation. More valuable time was saved by Mechanic Kevin Mole, who took command initially, taking the lifeboat across the river to pick up Coxswain Martin Kenny from the Pilot Jetty.

Five people had been swept overboard from the yacht during the knock-down, but by the time the lifeboat arrived two had been picked up.

Three more were still unaccounted for, and the people aboard the yacht were pointing in the direction of the harbour mouth.

Working through the huge breaking swells with everyone either belted in or clipped on the Arun searched towards and past the entrance, finding nothing. She had just turned to recovertheground when the h a r b o u r authority radioed to say that three bodies had been sighted some 400 yards to the NE of the north pier head. Turning back out to sea the crew quickly spotted them - two apparently motionless and the third swimming weakly. All three were recovered, although crew members had to position themselves outside of the guard rails and use the violent rolling of the lifeboat to help get them aboard.

Two had no vital signs and the crew began immediate resuscitation procedures. The third, the weak swimmer, was found to have such a severe head wound that his skull was visible.

Immediate evacuation was needed, and fortunately an RAF helicopter arrived almost at that moment. Running back to the pier heads at 10 knots the motion was so violent that Coxswain Kenny feared for the safety of the men on deck and, after three abortive attempts to put a winchman aboard, the manoeuvre was delayed until within the relative shelter of the piers.

Even here Coxswain Kenny needed to use full helm and maximum engine power to prevent the lifeboat broaching in the huge following seas, but eventually-about 300 yards inside the harbour- the conditions moderated enough for the winch man to be put aboard. The injured man was then lifted off and flown to hospital.

The crew continued their resuscitation attempts on the remaining casualties while the lifeboat headed for shore at full speed - arriving at 1338.

Unfortunately it took 20 minutes for an ambulance to arrive - none having been available locally - and as the remaining six crew members from the yacht had now been transferred by police RIB to the lifeboat the atmosphere aboard was extremely tense and emotional.

Eventually the two remaining casualties were transferred to hospital but sadly, although the crews' efforts had given staff at the hospital a glimmer of hope, they did not survive.

The Lifeboat Arunctass 52-13 George and Olive Turner The crew Chairman's letter of thanks.

Coxswain Martin Kenny Mechanic Kevin Mole Crew Member Edwin Chappie Director's letter of appreciation: Crew Member Michael Nugent Asst Mech Geoffrey Cowan Two saved by brothers andjifeboat The quick thinking of two young men who were about to take a swim in the Teign estuary undoubtedly saved the life of at least one of two people who were thrown into the water when their small outboardpowered boat capsized on 21 August last year. Their actions led to a framed letter of thanks from David Acland, the RNLI's Chairman.

Crew member Adam Truhol of Teigmouth lifeboat also received a letter of thanks from the Chief of Operations for his part in the rescue.

The two young men, brothers Luke (19) and Daniel (17) McCarthy were about to take a swim in the estuary at 2030 when Luke saw a small boat capsize and sink, throwing one of the two occupants into the water while the other scrambled aboard a moored boat.

Quickly fetching Daniel and the oars for their 11 ft dinghy they rowed out towards the man on the boat. By hugging the shore they were able to made use of a back-eddy until they were ready to pull out into the strong spring tidal stream-which was running at 5 or 6 knots - and be swept down to the first man.

Taking him aboard their dinghy they continued down-tide to search for second man-finding him clinging to the mooring chain of another boat and obviously in distress and tiring rapidly.

As the brothers rowed towards him he let go and disappeared, but Daniel was able to grab his arm and take him round to the transom of the dinghy.

As there were already three people in the small boat the man could not be brought aboard so Luke began to row towards Shaldon beach with him hanging on to the transom.

Teignmouth's Atlantic had arrived by this time, but with the strong tidal stream sweeping through the crowded moorings she was having great difficulty manoeuvring - eventually fouling her propeller on a yacht mooring.

Once she had been extricated from the mooring the Atlantic moved in to pick up the man in the water at the stern of the dinghy, crew member Adam Truhol going in to the water to help him as he was too exhausted to help himself.

In the process of getting the man aboard Adam lost contact with the lifeboat and was swept away downstream.

However the two brothers, now freed of the weight of the casualty on their transom, rowed quickly after him and, with Adam now hanging on to their transom, began to make for the slacker water on the Shaldon side of the river.

The lifeboat joined them there and picked up both Adam and the 'dry' casualty before landing the two survivors at Shaldon and returning across the river to her station.

A funny thing happened on the way to a shout..

Richard Pearce, Silver medal winning helmsman of Brighton lifeboat, certainly knows all about the serious (and often hazardous) side of lifeboat work - but what about those incidents that Richard couldn't help remembering without a smile on his face… Beep! Beep! Beep! said the pager at 2:30am. My wife and I shot out of bed in has become a well rehearsed plan. She grabbed the car keysand ran out of the front door in bare feet (and almost bare everything else!) whilst I shrugged into 'woolly bear' which hangs by the bedroom door, taking very good care to tuck everything in before pulling up the zip and running out into the street.

I just had time to notice a very bemused taxi driver watching our antics from across the road, before jumping into my car, the door of which was held open by my wife who had started the engine and also cleaned the windscreen, as I drove into the night. My wife made her way back indoors only to hear the taxi driver call out 'What's the matter luv-had to throw 'im out 'cos the old man is coming home early?' Perhaps it was because of this that she decided to come with me on the next night call out, so it was while I was driving that we heard over my radio scanner our 'customer', a 'yachty', giving his compass bearing to Brighton Marina.

'Quick' I said to my other half. 'Write down his reciprocal'.

'His what?' was the reply.

'His reciprocal bearing', I said 'Just add 200 and take off 20'.

And so, it came to pass ourgallant lifeboat crew set off into the dark night with one of their crew clutching a vital piece of paper upon which was written the bearing for us to find this desperate, unfortunate, seafaring wretch. I carefully opened the note and instructed the coxswain to steer Half the power- but thiejob's still done Couper «~»f Fleetwood s on the more rk carried out by intry. Never essentia nile some RNLI's services are carried out in extreme weather conditions the majority ' are more 'rotifine' but still require proven and reliable equipment in addition to a high level of seamanship and dedication from the lifeboat crews.

One such service was undertaken by Helen Turnbuil, the relief Waveney on temporary station duty at FleetwocJcTirfTebruary 1998.

Before 1989 Fleetwood had a permanent Waveney, Lady of Lancashire, so there was a degree of nostalgia when Helen Turnbuil replaced our Tyne which was one of those withdrawn for engine modifications. The Tyne is a far more comfortable boat for the crew, but the Waveney is superbly responsive and is known as a 'real coxswain's boat' At 0850 on Tuesday 3 February Helen Turnbuil slipped her moorings under the command of Coxswain Chris Hurst to go to the assistance of the Irish trawler Bridget Carmelwhich had fouled her propeller some 16 miles south-west of Fleetwood.

With light westerly winds and a calm sea Helen Turnbullcleared the Fleetwood channel at full speed and set a course for the reported position of the casualty.

As she passed the Lune Deep radio contact was made with the trawler and a bearing obtained with the VHP radio direction finder. At 0930 the casualty's position was confirmed by radar and the coxswain asked Bridget Carmel to prepare her own lines in readiness for the tow to Fleetwood.

Arriving at the scene at 1005 the calm conditions allowed Coxswain Hurst to position the lifeboat under the bows of the 125ft trawler to take the tow line.

Helping relatively large trawlers is a quite common occurrence at Fleetwood, although normally with the larger Tyne class lifeboat.

In this case the relief Waveney had only half the Tyne's power, but the task was nevertheless carried out very effectively and by 1335 the lifeboat and casualty were at the Fairway Buoy at the seaward end of the Fleetwood channel.

The tide was now running at some 5 knots, so Coxswain Hurst shortened the tow and stemmed the stream to wait for high water before entering the two-and-a-half-mile channel to the docks.

Bridget Carmel was berthed in the fish dock at 1530 where divers spent six hours clearing her fouled propeller.

The service completed Helen Tumbult returned to station where she was refuelled and ready for service again at 1645 - some eight hours after the initial call.

520°! course not alt calls happen at night and one day lazy summer afternoon, whilst sunbathing in the garden, the peace was disturbed by my pager.

Jumping into the motor, I set off towards the marina.

As I gathered a little speed, I felt a strange presence - as though I was alone, A moment later I was sure that I heard the rear seat creaking.

I picked more speed all hell broke loose as next door's cat leapt on to shoulder and dug its claws into my arm. At first I didn't know what had me but turning my head I found myself eye to eye with one-and-a-half stone of terrified moggy.

Netther the bump at the cross roads, nor the hairpin curve into the marina could dislodge those long and painful claws and it was only when stopped at the boathouse that it decided to hide back under the seat. The shout was only a quickie and I was able to soon return the animal back into next door's garden without further incident - making sure This lime not to leave my car window open.

The trouble with pagers is that your mind suddenly switches off whatever you were doing and goes totally m to lifeboat mode and so this was the case when driving my taxi along Brighton sea front at 2:00am with a chap in the back who had fallen asleep.

The lifeboat call was a long one which involved trying to tow a 40ft yacht with its rudder jammed hard over to port off the rocks and into the marina.

It was after putting our boat away and a few cups of coffee that one very amused crew member noticed that my customer was still fast asleep and upon further inspection his normal taxi £3.50 taxi fare was still ticking over at £28! Carefully getting into the car without walking him I drove him to his road.

'Which house is it mate?' giving him a gentle shove.

'Eh - eh - oh, here please driver'.

That will be £3.50 please', I said (I had already turned off the meter).

As he paid me I could see he was slightly confused by just how bright the night sky was becoming.

'What time is it?' his sleepy voice said.

'Just after 5.30am mate'.

He started off towards his house looking first at his watch and then at the sky, I hurriedly drove away..