May 2007-Leader Training-Safety Boat work at Brightlingsea.

Saturday

The leaders and helpers involved at Sea Scouts were put through their paces over the weekend of the 26th & 27th May.

The idea for the weekend was to get the skilled helpers at Sea Scouts to gain more experience in boat handling and dealing with different situations. The staff at the park & Ride launched Brisail 1 first, with me at the helm, followed by Rib TC with Tracy at the helm and James as the crew for the day. They met up with Brisail 1 in the creek. Jeff and Billy White, one of our Senior Patrol Leaders were on Johnny Rescue and the last boat to be launched. Once all safety boats were afloat we called Nick on the VHF Radio telling him that we were ready, and that he could launch the sailing boats. Johnny Rescue then picked Nick up off the beach and transferred him on to Brisail 1before heading out into the River Colne.

Johnny Rescue and Rib TC each looked after one Topaz, and Nick passed on some top tips to the sailing crews from Brisail 1. After about an hour we decided to do the first of our set rescues. The Topaz Johnny Rescue was looking after started sailing close to the mud and shore line of Mersea Island and away from the main sailing area. Jeff called on the radio to say there may be a problem with their Topaz and that they were going to take a look at this. On their approach, Isaac Nunn helm of the Topaz started using a distress hand signal to the safety boat. By this point the Topaz had run a-ground on the mud. Johnny Rescue was soon on the scene and dealing with the situation, only to find out that Isaac’s crew had taken a knock to the head leaving Gregory Rose, another Sea Scout volunteer, in a state of unconsciousness.  He soon came back round and was sitting up in the boat. Jeff and Billy made the decision to call for help on the VHF Radio changing to channel 16 and putting a pan- pan call for help on the distress channel requesting medical help.  They did everything bar pressing the "push to talk" button on the radio as this was only an exercise.

We then carried on sailing and both  Rib TC and Johnny Rescue dealt with capsized Topaz’s. Both were real time rescues and not planned as part of our training weekend at the time they went over.

Towards the end of the day we decided to capsize the Wanderer “Single Cream” with two Sea Scouts on board each time. Having had both Rib TC and Johnny Rescue on stand by to help with the recovery.

Sunday

Once all boats were afloat we headed out to sea again. The weather was not great and it deteriorated as the day went on. For the crews on the safety boats it was more of coming along side, man over board and dealing with cold & wet Sea Scouts.  We also practiced high speed manoeuvring throughout the morning.  Our plan was to stay out till about 15.00hrs but with heavy rain and strong gusts of wind we decided to finish the session early., but not before capsizing  the Wanderer one last time.  The safety boat crews had a bit of a change around; Jeff was now back on his own boat Rib TC with  Isaac as crew, Nick Powell  and Tracy were on Johnny  Rescue and Billy joined me on Brisail 1. On the way back in I saw one of the other club safety boats dealing with a dinghy that capsized. It was up right  but still full of water and very close in to the shore line I changed my radio to the clubs channel and Brisail 2 was calling for help!

Rib TC was towing back the Wanderer after the capsize we had done earlier and still had two Sea Scouts on board inside a survival bag to keep warm. We took control of the club sailing boat that was full of water and moved her in to deeper water with the crew from the boat now on board.  Brisail 2 had to go as another boat had capsized in the main river. Johnny Rescue had also been kept busy as they received a distress message on the DSC Radio but with no location given. Nick called Thames coastguard on channel 16 informing them that we received the distress message. They too had received this and were trying to get more information. Some time after we received a mayday relay from the coast guard saying that a boat was in distress.  Eventually the Coastguard then called over the radio to say it had been a false alarm!

I would like to thank the Sea Scouts and skilled helpers for giving up their time to gain more experience as safety boat crew.  I would also like to thank the sailing club for their continued support.

Rob Palmer -3rd Sudbury Sea Scouts

"My Weekend"

Saturday 26th

Five sea scouts met up at the sea scout head quarters at 8:00 on Saturday the 26th of May to help the leaders with there power boating and life saving skills . While on the weekend the sea scouts sailed little boats called Topazes and a boat called a wanderer . While sailing the wanderer Gregory got cold and went on the safety boat to warm up. We later did a capsize drill, firstly Isaac and Freddy and then with Josh and Greg . By the end of the day we were all freezing, it was great to be able to use the sailing club showers . Once we were all nice and warm we went out in the cold again to put up our tents . After they were pitched Jeff went out to get everyone some fish and chips, it was nice not to have to cook and wash up. We were so tired we fell asleep really quickly without the need for hot chocolate and rum.

Sunday 27th

After that long day sailing everyone slept in on Sunday. Once awake we packed up the tents. By now we were starving but the café did not open till 9am. Luckily the café took pity on us and opened up early, it must have been our good looks!! . Ten of us went in and had a full English, hash brown, beans, sausages, bacon, french toast and a fried egg of course not forgetting the tea. That really set us up for the day. After getting changed we went out on the water and sailed out to sea. Greg got cold and went on the safety boat again. Josh and Freddy capsized the boat but it was really cold so the leaders put the boat upright while Freddy and Josh were put in a survival bag . Most of the weekend four of the boys were sailing while Billy was driving the power boat, he done a bit of steering around the buoys . Also today Isaac was on the safety boat instead of sailing, he got to speed along on Jeffs safety boat called Rib-TC. We came in at lunchtime and got showered and changed. We were all so cold we were not going back on the water. Instead we helped the sailing club tidy up their store room because they had an inspection due. At the end of the day we drove back to the scout HQ . We had to tidy everything away and then hung up the sails to dry. Josh and Freddy made coffee and tea for everyone then at 8:00pm everyone went home after eating a vast amount of chocolate biscuits.

Josh Finbow - 3rd Sudbury Sea Scout

                                                           

Pictures from Saturday. Sunday was too wet and rough to get the camera out of the bag!!

We would like to thank the following organisations who helped make this training weekend a success.

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