The last few months have been hectic at the station with both the inshore lifeboat Charles Dibdin & hovercraft Hurley Spirit in action on a regular basis. At the time of writing this we have had over 40 ‘shouts’ so far this year. These combined with our extensive and on-going training programme have kept our volunteers fully occupied.
5th June – rescue of a badly injured & unconscious person in the area of ‘Wigg Island’ nr Runcorn – We carefully transferred him to the lifeboat, gave oxygen, first aid and monitored his condition. We transferred him to the RAF rescue helicopter near Liverpool Airport and he was flown to Aintree Hospital in Liverpool for treatment. Both inshore lifeboat and hovercraft were called out.
7th July – recovered and secured and fishing vessel that had lost its mooring and was a potential hazard to shipping in the river.
16th / 17th July – The Mayor of Wirral visited the station on the Saturday and in the evening the hovercraft Hurley Spirit was in action to assist an injured kite surfer. On the Sunday we launched in severe conditions on a call out to a yacht with engine failure.
23rd July – the Charles Dibdin was launched to assist a yachtsman in Liverpool Bay with a severe crush injury to the foot.
30th July – We responded to the report of a large silver object falling into the sea off New Brighton. We recovered it and unfortunately it turned out not to be of alien origin but a group of party balloons tied together. Our hopes of being the first RNLI station to have an alien encounter were dashed!.
31st July & 7th August – our volunteers performed ‘man overboard’ recovery demonstrations to appreciative passengers on board of Mersey ferry’s on charity cruises.
We have had other call outs but these ones have featured in the press.
For more information on these and other rescues please have a look at www.rnli.org.uk web site select the ‘In Your Area’ tab and go to New Brighton lifeboat station. There you will find press reports, photographs and now videos of these and other activities at the station.
£50,000 Fundraising Campaign for Crew Training & Equipment
So far we have raised a magnificent £32,000 from a wide range of people & organizations – this has been a great effort and is putting us well on our way towards our target. If you can help us by donation or involvement in some activity to raise funds that would be great – for more information please phone: RNLI on 0161 787 8779 or email [email protected]