Saturday

With the ongoing recruitment drive at Solent Rescue to boost our ranks for the 2011 season, Damien worked feverishly as ever to drum up interest.  He has drawn up a number of signs and also used word of mouth to further increase interest.

WELL DONE CHUM.

Although a busy day in the Solent generally, it was relatively quiet in the Western reaches.

Sunday

Sunday saw crew firstly complete some running repairs on our smaller vessels launch trailer and shelter.

As luck would have it, the afternoon saw us deal with some impromptu work on our main lifeboat trailer after it struck a submerged object at our launch site (the joy of using a Second World War industrial site as our recovery position). 

So in the end the day was completely taken up with maintenance whilst we manned our lookout.

Nothing to report in the West and we shut down at the agreed time.

Friday

With the Royal wedding creating another bank holiday, we ensured the vessel and lookout were on station in order for cover to be provided to any mariners who may require assistance.

With the wind and tide resulting in an almost becalmed weather and water state, we spent the day completing a navigation exercise and some preventative maintenance also.

Saturday

Crew ensured observations and first aid was provided in the country park, no incidents occurred that required our intervention.

Sunday

With an acceptable crew mix, we prepared for another day of course plotting and practical navigation exercises, with each crew member plotting a segment and then helming someone elses course.

This however did not occur, whilst heading to the launch site we were raised by Solent Coastguard to assist Stanswood Rescue with the recovery of a windsurfers sail that had been landed one nautical mile from the casualty.  Southampton mobile Delta was already on scene and we then proceeded to take a lifeguard, his kayak and the sail back to Stanswood Rescue HQ.  Securing the sail gave us a few issues but it was returned to it's owner.

Once all parties happy, we headed back off to begin our Nav Ex.....

Upon arriving at our starting position, after completing a crew change, we were hailed by Southampton Mobile to a vessel in the Beaulieu River that had collided with the bar that runs alongside the waterway, the vessel had suffered a dismast.

We were on scene within 1 minute and checked that no injuries had occurred and the vessel was not taking on water.  The crew of the casualty had sensibly steered back into deeper water and dropped anchor in order to assess damage and recover their snapped mast.

We stood off and provided them with a few bits heavy duty cutting equipment to aid their stowage.  This took in the region of 30-40 minutes, we stood off allowing the crew to rectify their own predicament and they did so.  Once all was satisfactorily on deck and all trailing lines were removed from the water, they began their voyage to Hamble.

Hamble Independent Lifeboat then also arrived on scene and shadowed the vessel, ensuring no further misfortune fell upon these mariners.Once released, we headed to Cowes to refuel and did some alongside training whilst there was a lull in the weather.

We returned to station with no further incidents reported in the Western Solent, we closed down at our designated time.

Friday

Vessel placed on service, crew rotated throughout the day.

Self launched to a windsurfer who could not recover his sail.

Later in the day, we towed a broken down jetski to the nearest fuel pontoon.

Saturday

All quiet in the Western Solent and no medical incidents in the park.

Sunday

Both boats were launched and no medical incidents in the park but both lifeboats dealt with an incident.

SR2 was launched to a person in the water who had become seperated from his kayak, both were brought back to the shore safely and Southampton Mobile Unit gave them some words of wisdom.  Also, this was the first solo rescue for Robin and Lee, well done gents.

SR1 went for recovery after giving some advice to another kayaker afloat, just as the vessel was lining up upon the trailer, Solent Rescue Base called up reporting 2 men in an inflatable 200 metres off the beach with no safety equipment or oars being swept along on a receding tide current towards Yarmouth.

Both pulled onboard and checked over, all being well, we returned them to the beach details were taken and advice given.

Monday

First aid was provided for Lepe Country Park.

Summary

A busy four days, well done all, not forgetting Sue and her Easter Egg.  If you are interested in joining us, please email the contacts and we will pick up from there.

With the start of the summer season merely a week away, we sea-trialled the main vessel this past Sunday and even though not on official SAR duty still managed to help keep an eye out for an overloaded RIB that the CG had concerns about.  Calshot RNLI ALB & ILB were officially task to make a sweep on their way back to the station.  We informed the Coastguard that we were in the vicinity and would eyeball also.

The new lookout now has a fully functioning treatment area and radio testing is ongoing in order to ensure we have good comms from Friday onwards.