FEATURE AWARDS & THANKS
As boatcrew, Joe Wallington and I had been chosen to be the casualties in today’s exercise. We bobbed about in Gosport ILB while waiting for the Coastguard Rescue Helicopter 104 to arrive. A sudden huge noise, downwash, the drop of a heavy capsule, the yank of its rope and lo and behold, an inflated life raft erupted from apparently nowhere, and delicately perched itself upon the wave peaks. Once the rope had been cast off from 104 we were able to go alongside the raft so that Joe and I could climb on and take up our roles as ‘distressed mariners’. This small circular life raft, though excellently designed for purpose, felt little more than a child’s paddling pool, isolated, and at the mercy of the elements. The helicopter returned to rescue us taking a wide sweep of the area en route in order to establish its routine search pattern. The winchman descended on his wire, and we pulled in the short rope to guide him into the raft. A brief greeting and explanation, and Joe was whisked up into the sky. The empty strop returned for me to put over my shoulders, and then I was away too. Arms held tightly to my body, I felt the traction through each individual vertebrae as my body stretched with height. There was a wonderful view, an immense roar of rotor noise, the buffeting wind in my face, creating a surreal moment of splendour. All too soon this was interrupted by a firm yank backwards, and I was being pulled through the doorway of the helicopter. The winch operator gestured to ‘sit there’ next to Joe, and ‘buckle up’ while he prepared for the next manoeuvre. He watched while his colleague transferred to Gosport Lifeboat in readiness to receive us, and then, one by one we descended on the wire to our ‘mother-boat’, and further, on to the ILB alongside her. As the wire took him from the high speed lifeboat, the winchman signalled that the exercise was complete. He was retrieved safely, and 104 then veered sharply away from us, bidding farewell on the radio. We returned to our boathouse with the life raft in tow. Here it was washed and deflated, and taken by road back to the Coastguard aircraft hangar for them to re-pack it into capsule form once more. We had a brief exchange of pleasantries (since we were now able to hear each other!) The value of such exercises was confirmed to be of mutual benefit, and an excellent training environment.
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Alice Morris Lifeboat Crew
www.gafirs.org.uk
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