Another year is about to disappear but 2012 has been another good year for Penlee especially with the news that Janet Madron has been awarded the BEM for her services to the Rnli, Andrew, Roy, Eric and Mike have all received awards from the rnli this year, Dinx received a bronze Medal from the RSPCA for saving a dogs life and many of the crew received the Queens jubilee medals, The Lifeboats have had a busy year with several noticable services in poor weather conditions, i have got to say that the crew have been admiral again this year ! whatever the task, weather a shout an exercise, PR, fundraising or scattering ashes they are brilliant a real credit to Penlee and the RNLI.
I just wanted to say a big thankyou to all the crews wives and partners for their continued support throughout the year and a huge thanks to Nina and Nat for organising a brilliant Dinner and Dance at the Queens Hotel it was a huge success !

Thats all from me and wish you all a happy new year and a safe 2013

Patch

The first half of 2012 has disappeared already, cant believe how fast the time goes these days, callouts have been fairly routine with twenty five rescues so far, recently the ALB was launched to assist a yacht that left Newlyn that morning in poor weather and a deteorating forcast ( SE 8 gusting 9 ) the yacht got into dificulties five hours later twelve miles south of Newlyn when its jib parted and fouled around the keel and rudder, Penlee Lifeboat launched and headed towards the yacht in poor conditions but made a steady eighteen knots and arrived on scene in forty five mins, once a rope was secured the Lifeboat started to tow the yacht towards Newlyn making 6 knots, the sea conditions in Mounts Bay were poor so the Penlee ILB launched to put a rope fast of the yachts stern to act as a brake while the Alb towed the yacht through the gaps, it all went well and the yacht was safely berthed alongside.

Well done to David Raymond ( dinx ) who is now a deputy second coxwain after being put through the mill on exercise with an RNLI inspector recently, Penlee now has a coxswain, 2nd coxswain and three deputy coxswains, several other crew have been put on helmsman and mechanics plans.

Congratulaions to Dave and Debbie Osborne who recently got married in Greece, Dave also celebrated his 50th birthday the same week.
Also congratulaions to Andrew , Roy , Janet , Mike and Eric who received awards this year, Janet Madron had a bar to her gold Badge, Andrew Munson and Eric Taylor silver badge and Roy Pascoe and Mike Sagar Fenton received statuetts, well done and thoroughly deserved !!

There will be a presentation evening at the Pirates Rugby club on the 20th July to celebrate these awards and several crew awards aswell.

Thats all from me but will enter another blog later this year

Patch

As this year draws to an end we turn our thoughts to our brave crew that lost there lives thirty years ago attempting to save the crew of the Union Star in what was probably the worst storm to hit the southwest coast in the last forty years !
Because of the disaster there is still a lot of public interest in the present day Penlee lifeboats and thats the reason why the media are always interested service reports and sometimes video footage of shouts and exercises.
Unfortunatly some people dont like the fact that Penlee Lifeboat get 'occasionally' a bit more media interest than other Stations and quite often will aim aweful, sad and childish comments online at Penlee which personally i find very very upsetting.
Unbelievably the station got accused of poaching work recently, the lifeboat was on exercise and offered to head towards a ship that was unable to start its engines and was dragging its anchor in a gale of onshore wind three miles from the shore and only five miles away from the lifeboat, as a coxwain i thought that was a sensible thing to do, obviously not !!!
 
The Penlee crew are a great bunch of guys and volunteers who will always be there for anyone who needs help or assistance on the sea, just like any other Lifeboat Station.


The annual crew party was another cracker !!! all hands meet at the Newlyn Meadery then proceeded to the British Legoin for more drinks and music, some coped better than others !!!  

The summer period has kept the crew busy this year with various events happening locally plus the call outs during July and August.
Rescue day on the Prom was a wash out this year the heavens opened during the afternoon, due to the weather and the lack of people on the prom the Lifeboat display was cancelled, instead the crew helped the fundraisers putting away the tables , gazebos etc.
Porthleven Lifeboat day despite the down pour during the Lifeboat display with the Search and Rescue helicopter was a great success again, this time Lizard Lifeboat joined in the fun alongside the Penlee Lifeboats, it was a great day, over £10,000 was raised on the day !!
Penlee Lifeboats attended Newlyn Raft race, another cracking day in blistering sunshine, it seemed that a lot more people attended this year which is great news for Newlyn and the Harbour lights.
Newlyn Fish Festival was manic !! ( a long day ) the Lifeboat was open to the public this year and it proved a huge success, the Lifeboat was full of people all day, the crew did a great job spending so many hours showing people around and answering hundreds of questions to raise public awareness of the great work that the RNLI does, the crew also held a bbq outside the Boathouse alongside Janets stall selling souviners, over £600 was raised for the RNLI on the day, Brilliant !!, that evening the Penlee Inshore lifeboat launched to help provide safety cover for Paddle For Life, a charity event along Newlyn and Wherry Town beach.
Due to the low spring Tides in August  the Annual blessing of the Penlee Lifeboats which is normally held in Mousehole was held in Newlyn this year, it was a great evening ! , Mousehole Male voice choir where brilliant once again, many thanks to all who attended especially Julyan Drew and other local vicars who blessed the Lifeboats and prayed for the lost crew of the Solomon Browne,
Last week the National Youth Brass Band arrived at Penlee Lifeboat Station for a tour of the Old Boathouse and the present Lifeboats, at the old Boathouse i told them of  the night of the disaster, then a couple of hours where spent at Newlyn, they watched a dvd about the work of the RNLI and had a tour of the Lifeboats, That evening myself and the crew were invited to the Methodist Church in Penzance to watch the band perform, we were blown away !!! they were brilliant !!!  i was presented with a cheque from them for the RNLI, then they played 'Penlee' a piece of music that tells the story of the disaster, it was amazing,
On behalf of everyone at Penlee many many thanks, your all lovely people.



Many thanks to my crew , Roy, Graham, Janet, Mike, all the wives and parteners for your constant support and the hours and hours you give to the RNLI.

Patch 

  

Personally a difficult period since the last blog, recovering a persons body from the sea that has just been murdered and then having to deal with the culprit is something that me and the crew will never forget, just a routine shout we thought when we were launched to assist two persons in a small boat west of St Michaels Mount !!! If that wasn't bad enough a very young fisherman lost his life in Newlyn Harbour shortly after, the well known young lad was returning to his boat after a few beers up the road but fell into the harbour and drowned, the lad was known to the crew as he was a crewman on a fishing boat that was assisted several times last year. As a touching gesture the Lifeboat crew carried his coffin to the lifeboat then took him onboard the lifeboat to the vessel he as crewman on, this vessel then steamed to Alderney his hometown for the funeral.
On a happier note the Penlee lifeboats have had a quiet spring so far with just a few inshore callouts and a couple of tow jobs for the Alb.

Well done Dinx !!, Dinx is going to be awarded a bronze medal from the RSPCA for his part in a rescue of a dog that fell 60ft into the sea near Cudden Point, Dinx swam into a gulley from the inshore lifeboat grabbed hold of the dog and managed to get himself and the dog onto a rock, the dog wasn't breathing at this time but Dinx cleared the dogs airway and after a few rubs of the dogs chest she started breathing !!! both were then winched up to safety by the Coastguard rescue team, the dog made a full recovery.

Congratulations !!   Tom and Sara Matson who have just got married , but appollogies for  the drunken fool on the dance floor !!!

Eleven Penlee crew members have just completed and passed a two week first aid course at the Station, this covered all possible aspects of injury and illness at sea ( which is alot ) focusing mainly on caring for the casualty and preserving life, the course was very hands on with a lot scenarios carried out by the crew that had to deal with heavy bleeds, heart failure, hypothermia etc, it was a great course and the crew learnt and enjoyed it alot.

The total amount raised from SOS day is £4378 brilliant effort !! 

Paul Alexander has arrived back at the Station looking like new after being taken to Cowes for a refit, the Inshore lifeboat was away for nearly three months,  a relief atlantic replaced the Paul Alexander whilst it was away.

Spring is here ! one or two yachts have called into Newlyn over the last week and with Easter not far away the quiet period might be ending soon !!

January has proven to be a busy and challenging month for the crew of the Penlee lifeboat, not only have they launched four times on service and took part in several exercises but there was a little matter of SOS day !!!

Five crewmembers started training in November to prepare for a challenging fifty mile cycle ride around the coast of Penwith via Lands End tackling several 'killer' hills on the way to raise money for the RNLI SOS day, the rest of the crew once again decided that they would wash cars and sell hot bacon and sausage rolls on the same day.

Saturday 29th Jan ( SOS day)
The cyclists left the Boathouse at 10am, the conditions were not good with a fresh and very cold NE wind blowing but good progress was made with the help of mr Osborne driving the safety truck, after a couple of stops for food and drinks they arrived safely back at 15.30 an hour quicker than expected, all five cyclists covered fifty miles !!
The remaining crew did an excellent job car washing with the help of Roy, Eric, Janet and Pat.

So Far £3300 pounds has been raised with £204 coming from the Farmers Market, this is a fantastic effort well done all !!!

A lot of people probably dont realise the amount of schools that visit the station, Mousehole and Portreath schools visited the station in the last two weeks bringing a total of 130 children who get a tour of both Lifeboats by the crew and also view an RNLI safety at sea dvd in the boathouse.

As you can see being a Lifeboat crewman is not just about saving lives at sea, hours (unpaid)are given by the volunteers to train, attend PR events, school visits, SOS and clean and maintain the lifeboats !!

December turned out to be a quiet month for the lifeboats with no callouts over Christmas and the New year, but training continued with some search exersises in mounts bay using a dummy which gets thrown into the sea then after an hour the crew work out the tide and drift of the dummy and work out an area to search, this is vital practise for the lifeboat crew in preparation for an actual incident where people could be in the sea if a vessel sinks ! the crew had the annual christmas party at the meadery then the legion with karoake, it was a cracking night !!!
Some of the crew have been training hard in preparation for a 50 mile cycle ride to raise money for the annual RNLI S-O-S day on the 29th of January but dont worry car washing and bacon rolls will still go ahead at the inshore boat house.

Hello all

October Kept the Penlee crew busy with the Lifeboats launching ten times ( four in one day ) mostly to local fishing vessels in distress a couple of yachts and a dog that decided to swim across the atlantic !! the most noteworthy shout was on the 5th October when a fishing vessel from Porthleven that was hauling nets with two persons onboard was hit by a huge wave and got washed onto the beach, unfortunatly the skipper fell overboard,  he managed to tred water for twenty minutes untill he got rescued by the rescue helicopter from culdrose, (Penlee Lifeboats were on route) the other fisherman jumped out of the boat when it hit the beach.
The skipper a well known fellow spent a couple of in hospital but has recoverd and is fit and well.

Alot of people have been asking me why the Penlee Lifeboat wasn't launched to help escort the Frederyic Shopan as it was towed from southwest the Scilly Isles to Falmouth, it was discussed by our launching authorities and Falmouth Coastguards and was decided that Sennen Cove Lifeboat would take over the escort from St Marys Lifeboat whilst Penlee would then provide safety cover from the Lizard, around Lands End to Cape Cornwall with St Ives Lifeboat then covering north of Cape Cornwall.
I have to say that everyone involved did a fantastic job !!

I probably wont do another blog now untill the New Year so i hope you all have a lovely Christmas !

regards Patrick 

Penlee Lifeboat Station has had a busy summer this year with both the inshore (Paul Alexander) and allweather (Ivan Ellen) lifeboats launching on thirty two occasions over the three months, the main reason for the launches have been yachts (14) and fishing vessels (9)that needed assistance. Our flank stations Sennen Cove and the Lizard have also had an increase in rescues this summer which means that more people than normal are using the sea for there holidays around this exposed part of the country and with a still healthy fishing fleet not just from cornwall but french aswell and the heavy traffic ( tankers, container ships) that use this area the need for Lifeboats is greater than ever !


 LIFEBOAT CREW
 We have 26 volunteer lifeboat crew here at Newlyn that man the Penlee Lifeboats they all have jobs and families, the comitment they show is massive, when the lifeboat is called night or day they drop everything and come running to the station willing to risk their lives for people they have never meet and for absolutley nothing, they quite often will lose a days pay if the lifeboat is out for long time, the crew also train every week and turn up for PR events to promote the RNLI, hours and hours they give for no financial gain !! and probably a few moans from the wife !!  thats not just here at Penlee thats every lifeboat station in Britain and Ireland .
What can you say about that  !!!!

Regards Patrick (coxswain)