RESCUE D LifeBoAt CReW sAVes eAsteR BUNNy! Tobermory lifeboat crew had an unusual, yet appropriate, casualty to rescue on Easter Sunday in the form of a pet rabbit. Four adults, two children, a dog and the rabbit were onboard the yacht Blue Note when she started taking on water. Two adults stayed onboard and helped the lifeboat crew pump out the water. The children, the other adults and the pets were transferred to the lifeboat, which towed the yacht back to Tobermory.

Q HANGING ON FOR MARRIED LIFE A couple whose canoe capsized in County Down’s Strangford Lough were rescued by Portaferry lifeboat crew on 16 April 2007.

They had managed to swim to a racing buoy and were clinging on for their lives when a passerby onshore raised the alarm.

Within 20 minutes, they were being helped aboard the lifeboat. After landing at a local yacht club, husband and wife were taken to hospital by ambulance. The man was suffering from hypothermia, but the crew had reached him in time.

D PRECARIOUS ‘LADDER’ Sennen cove’s all-weather lifeboat went to the aid of nine kayakers off Lands End on 27 December 2006. Wind and tide made the area, known locally as The Ladder, more perilous than usual. With waves 3m high and breaking, the kayakers were asked by radio to let off a flare so the lifeboat could find their small craft. Two of the group were in the water, being supported by their colleagues. The kayakers were helped onboard with a scrambling net. One was transferred to hospital by helicopter as it was suspected she was developing hypothermia. The rest of the group was brought to the lifeboat station, less than 90 minutes after the lifeboat’s launch, and offered hot showers and tea before collecting their kayaks, which were recovered by RNLI volunteers from Penlee.

B mAN iN BLACK The lochinver lifeboat crew, with Relief Coxswain Jim Hughan, saved a clam diver from a rock in driving rain, darkness and storm force 10 winds on 13 December 2006. After 2 hours of searching for the missing man, the Coastguard helicopter from Stornoway had to refuel, while the Severn class lifeboat resumed the search.

Luckily for the diver, who was dressed all in black, the crew heard him shouting and picked him up safe and well.

INSIGHT The RnlI’s Vision is to be recognised as the most effective, innovative and dependable lifeboat and lifeguard service.

Here are just a handful of incidents from around the UK and RoI to give an insight into the thousands of rescues carried out each year in an effort to meet that Vision.

Three particularly note- worthy rescues that have just resulted in awards for those involved are described on pages 16-23 and marked on the map thus:#. See pages 40-42 for 6 months’ launches at a glance.

B HYPOTHERMIC AND CONFUSED Both Redcar lifeboats were launched at the end of March to help a man in his 40s who was trapped at the bottom of a 90m cliff by a rising tide. When the crew of the Atlantic 75 Leicester Challenge II found him, he was wet through, hypothermic and very confused. The smaller inshore lifeboat, Peterborough Beer Festival I, was driven over sharp rocks to reach him. He was fitted with a lifejacket and taken onboard, before being transferred to the Atlantic in safer waters. He was treated by the Lifeboat Medical Adviser before being taken home by the Coastguard.

Q A gRoWiNg CRoWd ANd A RisiNg RiVeR In front of a large crowd, chiswick’s lifeboat crew saved a man who fell into the River Thames’ mud from Brentford’s Dock Road on 5 November 2006. The man, who had multiple injuries, was being held up by a friend, while the river rose 3cm every minute.

With great care the man was transferred to the lifeboat, Jean and Kenneth Bellamy, which had to reverse into the shallow, confined area to recover him. On the way to Chiswick lifeboat station, he was given first aid including oxygen and an intravenous drip. He was handed over to the ambulance service on reaching the shore and taken to hospital.

Q LIFEGUARDS RE" RNLI lifeguards returned to action over the Easter weekend. On Perranporth beach in Cornwall they gave lifesaving first aid to a woman with a heart condition who had passed out and stopped breathing. She regained consciousness and was airlifted to hospital. The lifeguards were also called to a woman who suffered spinal injuries after falling from her horse; to help the Coastguard search for a body, and to assist a bodyboarder and a surfer who had drifted out to sea.

A BAptism By fiRe ANd WAteR At the northernmost tip of mainland Scotland, the waters of the Atlantic Ocean siphon into the North Sea and back again, twice a day, through a churning channel less than 7 miles wide. One new recruit will always remember the Pentland Firth as her place of greatest testing. Elizabeth Paine reports There was, as the RNLI’s Tony Trickett later observed, ‘a hell of a sea on’ around Orkney on 11 November 2006. The Shetland Coastguard had taken a call shortly after midday from the MV FR8 Venture, an oil tanker battling heavy seas in Pentland Firth. She had three crew seriously injured by a massive wave that had swamped the deck.

After liaising with Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, the Coastguard requested assistance from both their own rescue helicopter based at Stornoway and the RNLI’s Longhope lifeboat station.

Deputy Launching Authority Ian McFadyen responded immediately and the brand new Tamar class Helen Comrie was on her first ever emergency ‘shout’.

Expert medical help would be needed but Longhope’s Lifeboat Operations Manager and Medical Adviser, Tony Trickett, was still en route home from a visit to RNLI Headquarters in Poole. Acting as Relief Doctor at the GP practice on Hoy was Christine Bradshaw. Assisting with saving lives at sea was not in her job description but, as she said: ‘On an island, you all pitch in.’ Dr Bradshaw’s sole experience of lifeboat service so far had been a flat-calm attendance on a sick diver a few weeks previously: now the weather was promising something entirely different.

Today’s knock on the door came with the plea: ‘Go straight to the pier and don’t let the lifeboat leave without you.’ Prepared for anything? Casting off in a north westerly force 9 wind, the lifeboat’s crew knew that using her ‘in anger’ in the ferocious weather that they would meet once they had cleared Cantick Sound would be even tougher than the poor conditions experienced during recent training. But they had full confidence in the seaworthiness of their new vessel, built for just such an eventuality.

The Doctor, too, trusted both lifeboat and crew. It was the uncertain extent of the casualties’ injuries rather than the logistics of the rescue that occupied her thoughts. A clue to what might be to follow should have been when Mechanic John Budge handed her a drysuit: ‘There’s just the one size … large … .’ As the lifeboat entered the Firth the swell was reaching an astonishing 15m. Coxswain Kevin Kirkpatrick and helicopter Mike Uniform’s pilot Captain Tim Noble agreed that a direct transfer of the Doctor from lifeboat to tanker would be impossible. When asked if she would ‘mind’ being winched across, Christine simply said: ‘Tell me what to do.’ This would be her first such experience. The two rescue craft diverted to the lee of the small island of Swona, as to chance more open water in these conditions would have meant injury to both Coastguard and RNLI personnel. Kevin remembers that the Tamar’s greater room on the afterdeck made the tricky manoeuvre more manageable than it might have been. However, with the wind gusting to force 12, Tim’s view was obscured by the three-storey-high waves. He was reliant on Winch Operator Phil Warrington to guide his positioning and needed several attempts before Winchman Chris Murray could lift off both the Doctor and her emergency kit.

Tim recalls the first time he glimpsed Christine: ‘She was coming across the deck of the lifeboat on her hands and knees, because nobody could actually stand up … she was presented to us in a formless rubber suit, like any other RNLI person, and we took her as such.’ tHe DetAIL Coxswain Kevin Kirkpatrick (40) Crew Members Angus Budge (46) Mechanic John Budge (56) Frank Gaertner (47) Ian Avis (44) Michael Johnston (41) Non-RNLI medic Dr Christine Bradshaw (49, relief GP) Tamar class lifeboat ON-1284 (16-05) Helen Comrie Built: 2006 On station: 14 October 2006 Funding: £2.5M from the legacies of Mr Thomas Comrie, Dr Frederick Benjamin Porges and Lorraine Fyfe and gifts from the MV Millhouse and Evelyn Murdoch Charitable Trusts, Mrs Ruby Brown and Mr George Derbyshire Into hell Some 20 minutes later, the helicopter was approaching the Venture and Dr Bradshaw watched waves breaking over her deck, the whole of which was awash. She began to feel a little apprehension: ‘I wondered how on earth we were going to get down there – safely.’ To make matters even worse, a squally hailstorm now enveloped them, and the dense spray off the tanker was reaching 30m – the equivalent of a 10-storey block of flats.

A vessel the size of the Venture generates a massive turbulence ‘bubble’ behind the superstructure, a phenomenon described by Tim Noble: ‘like someone’s taken hold of the tail of the helicopter and is trying to bounce it around in the sky.’ Phil concedes: ‘It can all go wrong, very quickly.’ Nonetheless, the experienced Coastguard air crew managed as smooth a set-down as possible.

The Doctor and Winchman found the casualties in three separate rooms inside the wheelhouse – but one had died and, tragically, a second soon followed, despite the Doctor’s best efforts. The third was revealed to have head and spinal injuries, which needed immediate stabilisation to prevent more damage. However, evacuation could not be attempted yet: Mike Uniform had to leave the scene to refuel at Wick. The call out was at the furthest extent of its range and had been demanding on its resources.

The tanker’s crew prepared her for the subsequent lift-off, turning her side on to the towering waves.

Christine could sense their anxiety. Removing a stretchered casualty would require extreme care but conditions had deteriorated further – even Chris Murray seemed a little nervous. But no sooner had the enormity of the task become clear than the helicopter had returned and they received instruction to go leaving the Venture to struggle on against the storm.

Relief and reward To everyone’s delight, the airlifted man eventually made a full recovery. All involved still feel deeply saddened that they were unable to save the other two but know that they had all worked to their physical and technical limits. The Tamar had come up trumps, with a superior communications system and hightech hull and seating that allowed much greater speed in the water: ‘We had faith in the boat and the technology there. We looked after it and it looked after us.’ They are even more impressed with Dr Bradshaw, who has since volunteered as a crew member. They variously describe her as ‘a good seawoman’, ‘plucky’ and ‘really cool’. Coxswain Kirkpatrick affi rms: ‘She undoubtedly saved a man’s life.’ Regular Medical Adviser Tony Trickett concurs: ‘This was no bob around the corner: this was serious stuff.’ He admits: ‘I wouldn’t have liked it to be me on the end of that string. She is more than a brave lass. She couldn’t not join the crew. The boys said, “She’s joining!”’ Coastguard Winchman Chris Murray declares conditions had been the roughest in which he’d ever been down inside a vessel, and commends Christine’s actions: ‘We need people like that, who aren’t afraid – she’s a volunteer at the end of the day and it’s volunteers that save lives.’ Tim Noble adds: ‘It’s hard enough to get somebody winched out of a stable helicopter at 6m on a nice day; it’s a very different matter when you’re in the middle of a raging storm, dangled over huge waves out the back of a pitching boat, for your fi rst time … it’s a baptism by fi re. Most people wouldn’t have even left the aircraft; to go down in those conditions to look after somebody else, I think just typifi es her character – admirable.

‘It’s all credit to both the RNLI and Christine that they have people like her working for them. We do a very similar job and complement each other – but I get paid to do my job and they don’t. I have total admiration for them and everything they do.’ ‘The RNLI’s a brilliant organisation; it does a tremendous job, I can’t fault it.

I’m very proud to now be part of it.’ Dr Christine Bradshaw, Bronze Medal awardee and new recruit Photo: Western Morning News dr Bradshaw is the ? rst ever non-RNLi woman doctor to be awarded the Bronze medal for gallantry, recently bestowed at the RNLi’s Annual presentation of Awards in London for her part in this rescue.

Regularly practising at truro in Cornwall, she spends 4 months a year as relief doctor at the gp surgery on the island of Hoy in the orkneys. since participating in this rescue, she has become an of? cial RNLi crew member and medical adviser.

Christine was once rescued by the RNLi herself. While sur? ng off the north Cornish coast, she was taken out by a rip current and a sea mist came down, leaving her stranded and lost, far from shore. ‘Lo and behold,’ she recalls, ‘this white nose appeared out of the gloom, and some blond-haired lifeguard towed me back in … it’s good to put something back.’ Into THe Cauldron Few people would risk swimming 30m through churning seas, surrounded by rocks – but that’s exactly what an RNLI lifeguard did in her bid to save a life South of Cornwall’s popular Perranporth beach, a gully lies in amongst the rocks at Droskyn Head, evocatively named Bat Cave 2 by the locals. It was into this cauldron of water that a 36-year-old surfer found himself swept on the afternoon of 22 September 2006. Waves 2m in height were bouncing off three sides of the gully and quickly carried the surfer’s board out of reach. Remarkably, the man managed to scramble onto a rocky shelf for temporary respite but the tide was rising and he could not climb any higher. As the waves hurtled in, he desperately hoped someone would hear his cries for help.

Half a mile to the north, RNLI Lifeguard Kris O’Neill was training aboard a rescue watercraft (RWC) when he saw Senior Lifeguard David Green on the beach signalling for him to return to shore. The trapped surfer was in luck – a member of the public had seen him and raised the alarm. Lifeguard Sophie Grant-Crookston was detailed to join Kris on the RWC. ‘Sophie jumped on the back and told me what was up,’ remembers Kris, who duly sped off towards Droskyn Head.

‘When we arrived, we could see a crowd of people at the top looking down at the surfer. He was still on the rocks and the conditions were rough.’ Kris knew that he couldn’t take the RWC in close to the casualty without putting Sophie, himself and the craft in serious danger. The Lifeguards agreed that the only way to reach the surfer was for one of them to swim through the confused seas themselves. Sophie volunteered.

Kris found a more sheltered area of water to allow Sophie to put on swim fins and attach a rescue tube (a buoyancy aid for casualties). He then drove within 30m of the casualty and Sophie set off on a treacherous swim through the breaking waves and pillars of rock. ‘I just did it, it was automatic,’ she recalls. ‘The sea swell was taking me here, there and everywhere. It was pure adrenalin, no fear, apart from one point when I lost sight of Kris.’ While Sophie made slow progress towards the casualty, Kris assessed the situation and decided to radio for back up. He asked for a Coastguard cliff rescue team, in case the casualty could not be reached from the seaward side after all, and requested the launch of the lifeguards’ inshore rescue boat (IRB). Back at the beach, David Green responded by asking off-duty colleague Robin Howell to forego his planned surf and take the helm with him in the IRB.

Sophie, meanwhile, had succeeded in negotiating her way through the waves and was now in reach of the ledge – but climbing onto it was a task in itself. ‘It was really difficult,’ she remembers. ‘I thought it would be easier to climb up if I took my fins off, but as I was doing so a wave came in and sucked me backwards. So I had to put them back on to swim in again.’ Eventually she scrambled up to reassure the surfer, who was shocked, tired, and had suffered many cuts and bruises.

Robin and David arrived at the scene aboard the IRB shortly afterwards. Robin decided he would attempt a run right into the gully. He signalled his intentions to Sophie, waited for a lull in the waves and drove in, turning into the oncoming swell with the rock ledge to his port side. ‘It was impeccable driving,’ says Sophie, who, having attached her rescue tube to the surfer, encouraged him to jump into the water. She helped him swim to the IRB, and the pair were pulled aboard. ‘You have to remember that I had a boat with a 30hp engine on the back,’ says Robin. ‘But to get in the water and swim in and out is a lot more difficult, so I had the easy end of the stick – Sophie had the other end.’ Back at Perranporth beach, Sophie and the casualty were both treated for cuts sustained on the rocks. The exhausted surfer was also given oxygen therapy. ‘I think he would have been in serious trouble if there had been no lifeguards on that beach because the tide was coming in and he would have got washed off. He would have been so tired that he would have lost his life,’ says Sophie. ‘One poor guy did die there 12 months earlier, when there were no lifeguards on duty.’ For his part in the rescue, Robin Howell received the RNLI’s Thanks of the Institution Inscribed on Vellum, while Kris O’Neill and David Green receive Service certificates.

‘Robin showed great skill, judgement and bravery,’ adds the RNLI’s Lifeguard Manager for south west England Steve Instance. ‘Our lifeguards showed tremendous teamwork that day and, under difficult conditions, were able to put all their training into practice.’ Sophie was awarded the RNLI’s Bronze Medal for Gallantry at the 2007 Annual Presentation of Awards (see page 6) – the first woman lifeguard to be recognised in this way. ‘She put herself at considerable risk to reach the casualty,’ says Steve Instance.

‘She did it without a thought for her own safety.’ The sea swell was taking me here, there and everywhere.’ Sophie Grant-Crookston, RNLI Lifeguard A sWim too fAR During the aftermath of Hurricane Gordon, when Ireland was buffeted by extraordinary gales, one woman found herself in grave danger The call came on 21 September 2006. As she cleared the shelter of the harbour and entered Killiney Bay, Dun Laoghaire’s Trent class Anna Livia met winds gusting storm force 11. The sun was going down when the crew noticed a man standing above the landing steps frantically waving a torch to attract their attention. A woman who had been swimming with companions had been swept by a flood tide 250m from the landing (a popular spot for swimmers) to the top of the bay.

Although her friends had managed to reach the shore to raise the alarm, worryingly, the remaining swimmer was caught between the outer breakers and the steep shelving rocks at the base of the cliff. The Dublin-based Coast Guard helicopter had already been summoned but because the cliff and houses were so close, it was unable to intervene safely. The only solution was for the lifeboat to go in. This was particularly difficult, not only because of the shallower water, but also because recent work on the sea defences had resulted in stray boulders lying scattered on the seabed.

Skill and bravery Coxswain Ken Robertson said: ‘As we launched and headed for Killiney Bay we could see the weather deteriorating. Rounding Sorrento Point, it was clear that pulling the swimmer straight from the water was the only solution to a rapidly worsening situation.’ He carefully steered the lifeboat towards the shore while trying to avoid hazards. The nearest he could get was 10m from the swimmer. Crew Member Wayne Farrell was ready on the foredeck in a drysuit with a heaving line firmly attached. Surf was breaking over the stern, making standing difficult. At the Coxswain’s instruction, and without hesitation, Wayne jumped into the sea and swam towards the woman in difficulty.

Ken manoeuvred the Anna Livia astern into the breaking seas to gain more depth. Second Coxswain Patrick Boyd, the Navigator, judged there was less than 3m of water between them and the seabed. With a draught of 1.4m, any approach closer to the shoreline could have been disastrous. In the meantime, Wayne had caught hold of the woman and hung on tightly as Crew Members Chris Watson, Gary Hayes and Rory Bolton hauled the pair back to the lifeboat. Wayne commented after: ‘This is what we train for and jumping in with a line didn’t cost me a thought other than I had to get to the swimmer before her luck ran out. I had complete trust that Ken and the crew would get us back safely.’ The relieved swimmer was taken into the wheelhouse and made comfortable. When safely back in harbour, she was handed over to the awaiting ambulance and coast guards and the lifeboat returned to station. Despite her life-threatening ordeal in the water, which had lasted over an hour, the woman recovered well and returned to the station on her birthday a few days later to thank the crew.

Awards for all Coxswain Ken Robertson and Crew Member Wayne Farrell receive the Thanks of the Institution Inscribed on Vellum; Second Coxswain Patrick Boyd, Mechanic Kieran O’Connell and Crew Members Chris Watson, Gary Hayes and Rory Bolton are presented with Vellum Service certificates. Stephen Wynn, Lifeboat Operations Manager for Dun Laoghaire receives a Letter of Appreciation. .