We were recently invited to go out in the Barmouth Lifeboat for the
start of the 2015 Three Peaks Challenge, which starts in the bay in the
town. The TPC involves sailing from
Barmouth in North Wales and ends up in Fort Will.I.Am in the Scottish Highlands. In between that, the crew climbs Snowdon in
Wales (1085m), Scafell Pike in England’s Lake District (978m) and finish up
with Ben Nevis in Bonnie Scotland (a massive 1344m). Why anyone would want to is, quite frankly,
beyond me, but if the world was full of people like me then no one would EVER
have done ANYTHING involving climbing mountains. Or big hills, come to think of it. I also have no idea about sailing.
 |
| Three Peaks Challenge |
Anyway, I digress. Because
the Barmouth Lifeboat crew requires the services of a Doctor, LT was invited
out to see if he fancied getting involved in the future. I tagged along to help him make up his mind,
because I’m supportive like that. I
really just wanted to go out on the water, but that’s not really the
point.
I had little idea of just how massive the process of getting a
lifeboat out of the RNLI boathouse and into the water was. I naively assumed it just, you know, sailed out, but I hadn’t taken into
account that the boathouse is a good few metres from the beach. I don’t know much about boats but I do know
they need water. This means that the
boat gets dragged down to the sea by an enormous tractor. It’s quite an impressive thing to
watch.
 |
Competitors preparing for the race in Barmouth Bay
|
 |
| Hauling the Boat to the yard |
 |
| The Speedboat crew |
When we finally set sail, we headed rounded to the Harbour to check
on the yachts and carried out a few patrols, making sure the competitors were
OK and that everyone was safe and well.
This gave us a chance to look at the competitors and hear stories of
previous races and how successful some of the local sailors had been.
A half hour before the race, we motored up to the start line and got
ready for the final flare to go off, which signalled that things were getting
underway. We followed the yachts for a
while to make sure everyone was on their merry way and then headed back to the bay for lobster
and wine.
 |
| The competitors lining up to get going in Barmouth Bay |
 |
| Come on! Get on with it already! |
 |
| Getting out in front before the final flare |
I’m thrilled to report that there were no casualties and we made it
back to dry land unscathed. I’d like to
say a massive thank you to the crew for letting us come aboard.
 |
| Until the next call out... |
No comments:
Post a Comment