22 Jun - One of our busier weekends!

1310 On a sunny but very windy afternoon, with winds gusting up to force 7, the pagers called the lifeboat crew from their decorating, cleaning and gardening tasks to the start of a busy afternoon that saw the inshore lifeboat carry out five shouts and the all-weather lifeboat one shout. The ILB launched to the first call out at 1310 to two people in the water who had been thrown from their dinghy as it capsized. They were picked up by the Harbour Master’s launch and taken to Dolphin Haven while the ILB retrieved their dinghy, which was caught up in the moorings between Baiter and Parkstone Yacht Club. After untangling it the lifeboat towed it to Baiter slipway to be reunited with its owner.

On their return to the station the ILB crew came across their second call out when they noticed three people waving to them from a motorboat alongside Bulwark Quay. The boat had suffered electrical failure and wouldn’t start so they towed this to Sandbanks Boatyard and Marina.

In increasingly gusty conditions, as the inshore lifeboat made its way back to the station, the third shout was to a person on a jetski that had broken down near number 23 buoy in the main channel. Before the ILB crew had time to put a tow line on, Portland Coastguard tasked them to their fourth shout – a person in the water near Ham Park. As this was more urgent than dealing with the jetski, ILB Helmsman John Vine requested the launch of the all-weather lifeboat, made sure that the person was safe and well and tied the jetski securely to the buoy before heading off to try to locate the person in the water.

At 1500 the pagers disturbed the painting, gardening and cleaning (again!) for the all-weather lifeboat crew to come down to the station. With five crew and one trainee onboard, the ALB launched within 10 minutes and radioed the ILB to find out the exact location of the casualty. The ALB quickly found the jetskier and brought him onboard to warm him up while a tow was rigged to tow the jetski towards Baiter slipway.

At the same time the ILB located the person in the water, who was a windsurfer with a broken windsurfing rig. They took the casualty and rig safely ashore to Ham Park before coming back down the harbour to meet up with the ALB again. As it was too shallow for the ALB to reach Baiter, the ILB then took the jetskier onboard and towed the jetski into the slipway.

Just as the ALB released the jetski the crew noticed that a J24 sailing yacht had broken free from its moorings. In the moderate sea conditions the ALB came alongside and Crew Member Anne Millman went onboard to rig a tow. With no rudder or keel on the boat it was difficult to keep the yacht straight behind the ALB so the ILB, on return from the jetski incident, secured a stern tow, acting as a form of drogue. Both lifeboats, with shortened tows, took the yacht into Parkstone Yacht Club and, with the help of some of the club members, managed to place the yacht on a pontoon. This wasn’t classed as one of the call outs as there were no people onboard.

Both lifeboats eventually returned to station at 1600, the crews cleaned and refuelled the lifeboats before returning home to their decorating, gardening and cleaning and perhaps some lunch or early Sunday evening roast dinner.

But just as some of the crew were sitting down to their evening dinner the pagers went off again at 1835 for the ILB to launch to a swimmer in trouble at the harbour’s entrance – their fifth call out of the day. Soon after they launched the lifeboat the crew were stood down as the swimmer had made it safely ashore. The lifeboat rehoused within 10 minutes and the crew returned home for a relaxing Sunday evening.

Phew!