On Tuesday 24 June, Julie Maskell had just arrived for duty in the RNLI Operations room at Poole. She settled into her chair and hoped for a quiet evening. Moments later, at 6pm, she received a call from Arqiva’s control room. As well as providing the RNLI’s crew pager infrastructure, Arqiva helps the RNLI monitor MOB Guardian, a remote sensing system designed by the RNLI to help protect fishermen. Now, there was a ‘vessel overdue’ alert and Arqiva had already tried to contact the skipper of the Brixham-based scallop fishing boat Guyona but without success.</p>
<p> Julie checked her screen to try to pinpoint the location of the overdue vessel herself. It wasn’t recorded as in port so she knew this wasn’t a potential false alarm. She attempted to ring the skipper’s mobile number but it was switched off. Julie immediately rang the Coastguard, giving the vessel’s name, port of registry and its last known position just off the Channel Island of Sark, backing up this call electronically via the MOB Guardian system. Then it hit her – this might be the first ever MOB Guardian-initiated rescue.</p>
<p> Falmouth Coastguard tasked the RNLI’s St Peter Port Severn class lifeboat with tracking down the scalloper. Her crew were able to narrow the search to a small area using the last transmitted position report of the MOB Guardian unit onboard the Guyona and calculating from there. By chance, the lifeboat had been out on exercise only 12 miles from this predicted position. The crew spotted a hand flare in the distance and got to the survivors at 6.50pm. There was no sign of the Guyona but the fishermen were sitting in her liferaft looking very relieved to see the Spirit of Guernsey coming to their rescue. </p>
<p>Julie, at her post in Poole, soon heard from St Peter Port that the lifeboat had been successful and she was straight on the phone letting the rest of the Operations team know the good news. </p>
<p>A sinking feeling </p>
<p>The three fishermen had been dredging with their scallop gear on what they thought was a routine passage. One minute they were proceeding as normal, the next, the gear caught in rocks, pulling the 13m Guyona over at a sharp angle. They frantically tried to cut the wire holding the cage to free themselves but then the shackle caught in a block and they knew they were going down.</p>
<p> David McMurdo of Annan in Dumfries and Galloway explained afterwards that there was no time to radio for help, to press the alarm button on the MOB Guardian base unit or to grab lifejackets. They struggled to deploy the liferaft but abandoned it to go down with the vessel as they jumped overboard.</p>
<p> Thankfully the raft later came free and popped back up to the surface but they had been treading water for about 20 minutes before they were able to climb in, weak and feeling sick from the diesel in the water. David adds: ‘I was worried we were going to die … but once we got to the liferaft I knew we were 90% safe … We knew we were getting saved.’ </p>
<p>‘It was so scary bobbing up and down in the water watching the boat go down, thinking we were on it only a moment earlier,’ says fellow fisherman Leo Piper. ‘MOB Guardian saved our lives; we wouldn’t be here without it.’ </p>
<p>The shocked fishermen were transferred to the lifeboat and given thermal suits to warm them up on the journey back to St Peter Port. They were safely brought ashore where they received medical attention from local ambulance paramedics before being accommodated overnight by Coxswain Anthony White in his home. Next morning they were handed over to The Mission to Seafarers and were able to return to their home port of Brixham later that day.</p>
<p> A real comfort</p>
<p> The Guyona’s owner, Russell Passmore, was working 8,500 miles away in Papua New Guinea at the time. His wife Fiona says: ‘I heard about the incident 2 hours after the fishing boat sank. I had the unenviable task of telling my husband over the phone that his boat had sunk but because of MOB Guardian I was very glad to be able to tell him that all three crew had been saved. </p>
<p>‘Not only does MOB Guardian make the crews feel safe; it brings confidence to those left on the shore. We know what a dangerous industry fishing is – I‘ve been married to a fisherman for 26 years – and it has been a real comfort for all the families to know that MOB Guardian is there protecting them.’ </p>
<p>Russell adds: ‘I was involved in the initial trials of MOB Guardian and I realised it would work well in the fishing industry. I jumped at the chance to have it fitted and could see what a great piece of kit it was. I would definitely advise others to buy it.‘On the day the vessel sank the sea was as flat as a millpond. The crew were not wearing their personal safety devices for that reason but they were still picked up. Now, of course, we will always wear them, whatever the conditions.’ </p>
<p>Tristan Northway was skipper of the Guyona on the day of the sinking. He is very glad that Russell had invested in MOB Guardian. ‘Accidents happen and it’s better to be safe than sorry. Obviously it does work – we are here!’ </p>
<p>It may be some time before the four will go fishing again. Russell explains: ‘As soon as I got back to the UK I spoke to the guys. They were still shaken up and not sure about going back to sea. But I was so glad they were safe. The boat sank so fast. Without MOB Guardian things could have been very different.’ </p>
<p>Repeat performance</p>
<p> A month later on 23 July the Operations room at RNLI Headquarters received another alert. This time the Levan Mor of Looe had missed a scheduled report. The vessel’s last known position was given to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and Falmouth Coastguard requested the Penlee RNLI all-weather lifeboat Ivan Ellen and a Royal Navy helicopter. </p>
<p>Nearing the scene, the helicopter crew spotted smoke from a flare and located the fishing boat’s liferaft and two occupants, Skipper Joe Rothwell and Daniel Gummow. Both fishermen were winched onboard and taken to hospital as they were suffering from mild hypothermia. The lifeboat crew meanwhile recovered the raft and debris from the fishing boat, to avoid any hazard to shipping or future false alarms.</p>
<p> Joe explains: ‘It all happened really quickly. In less than a minute the boat had capsized and we were in the water. We didn’t have time to put out a distress call so when we got in the liferaft we didn’t know if the emergency services had been alerted. We weren’t due into Newlyn until the next day so it could have been many hours before anyone missed us.’</p>
<p> ‘It was such a relief to see the helicopter coming and at that moment we knew the MOB Guardian had done its job. We hope to get another fishing boat and head out to sea as soon as possible, and the first items of equipment we’ll buy will be a new MOB Guardian unit and a liferaft!’