Sunday Training & a Hazardous Container Scenario

Apr 24, 2022

Another beautiful day for our Sunday morning boathouse session! But there was no time to enjoy the beauty of the beach as our teams were busy with vital equipment checks and maintenance, plus hazardous container scenario training to help keep our beach, base and boat crews #rescueready at all times.

Pett Level beach, rescue training scenario
Today’s rescue scenario training included some regular tasks and activities, including towing another vessel and man over board. There’s always an ‘unexpected’ scenario for the volunteers though, and today it was training in how to deal with a hazardous container on the beach!
This isn’t something our crews are very regularly faced with, but with pollution increasing, it’s a likely scenario and it has been known along our local coastline. There are also many possibilities and courses of action depending on the contents of different kinds of container – as well as essential actions in the case of unknown contents. So, this is all essential rescue scenario training for all of our volunteer teams.
rescue training scenarios during Sunday training sessions

A hazardous container – would you know what to do?


Would you know what to do, or what to advise your children if any of you spot a hazardous container on the shoreline or on the beach? It’s essential that everyone knows to stay well away from the item and call 999 or 112 for the Coastguard. 

IT COSTS MORE THAN £10k A YEAR TO KEEP OUR RESCUE BOAT CHARITY AFLOAT

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING US

Tasked to Assist – Vessel Retrieval

Mar 21, 2022

At approximately 14:30 today, Solent Coastguard set off our volunteer crews’ pagers. Our volunteers were then tasked to assist in the investigation and recovery of an abandoned vessel.

tasked to assist, retrieval of abandoned vessel
The vessel was drifting approximately two nautical miles off shore and causing a danger to other vessels in the area. As an inflatable item, there was also the possibility that, if punctured or taking on water, the vessel could pose a risk to the environment, birds, marine and wildlife.

Fortunately, our amazing crew are all relatively local and managed to get to the boathouse in record time. The John and Margaret Pulfer boat was successfully launched approximately seven minutes after the pagers were set off. It’s rapid response times when being tasked to assist that makes our independent rescue boat team very special.

Once on scene, the crew very quickly got the seven metre long inflatable vessel under tow and headed back to Pett Level Slip. Here, they were greeted by the recovery team, who then assisted the boat crew in the recovery of the abandoned vessel onto land.

After this, our crews carried out the well-rehearsed activity of recovering the rescue boat and crew members. Once all were back at the boathouse, it was all hands on deck for cleaning up and preparing the boats, vehicles and equipment so that all could be left #rescueready for next time.

Well done and thank you to our beach, base and boat volunteers who were so quick to respond and carry out the tasks as required by HM Coastguard today. Great work!

IT COSTS MORE THAN £10k A YEAR TO KEEP OUR RESCUE BOAT CHARITY AFLOAT

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING US

One of the Best Beaches in Sussex …

Mar 3, 2022

It’s well recognised locally that since lockdown, beaches all along the local coastline have become busier as ‘staycations’ have gained in popularity.

dry january fundraiser, PLIRB
And our own Pett Level is starting to be officially noted in lists of lovely places, and it has been declared one of the best beaches in Sussex in this recent article in the Sussex Express .

Yes, taking a bow at #3 in the list as the screenshot below shows …
one of the best beaches in Sussex, Pett Level beach
So now the word is out there, we’re already preparing for what may well be a busy season along Pett Level and Rye Bay! Because it may be one of the best beaches in Sussex, but it’s not without its risks and hazards.

Which is why you’ll find our teams of volunteers regularly training. Since last year’s extremely busy ‘unlocked’ summer, we’ve maintained our twice-weekly training sessions to help our volunteers to stay #rescueready as the seasons progress.

Regular training as a team means we can prepare and practice across a range of rescue scenarios, beach problem possibilities and likely first aid needs, in all types of weather and light conditions.

It also means we can plan ahead in terms of beach awareness education and raising awareness of hazards on local beaches and drowning prevention.

If you’d like to volunteer – and train – with us, please message us or phone our boathouse to find out more! 👍

IT COSTS MORE THAN £10k A YEAR TO KEEP OUR RESCUE BOAT CHARITY AFLOAT

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING US

Two Boats (& Lots of Volunteers) to clean the beach

May 9, 2021

Successful rubbish retrieval as Strandliners clean the beach. 

A very busy time at the boathouse today, helping with the big beach clean up at the Fairlight Berm. But it’s fair to say that Strandliners volunteers had already done the real work – an amazing job of sorting, recording and then bagging up the assorted debris, rubbish and pollution stuck at the berm area of Fairlight Cove.

50+ Strandliners volunteers have been extremely busy with this over the last few weeks, putting in over 150 hours of volunteer time in the process …

beach cleanup 2020

Strandliners volunteers came to Pett Level to assist bringing the bags up from the boat and to raise public awareness about the extent of the pollution problem.

volunteers time at beach clean up

Strandliners showed examples of pollution and rubbish to look out for, and shared data on their finds.

As removal of the bagged up rubbish is only possible by boat, both our inshore rescue boats were launched.  With the backdrop of a dramatic sky, the crews made several trips to and fro between Fairlight Cove and Pett Level.
 
In all, the bulk of the rubbish was all safely retrieved over a period of approximately 2 hours, with a combined group of PLIRB and Strandliners volunteers carrying the rubbish up the beach to Pett Slip, ready for collection by Rother District Council next week.

 

PLIRB volunteers assisting beach clean up 2021

Transporting the rubbish by boat is the only way to remove the pollution from the berm area of the Fairlight Cove.

plenty of volunteers came along to help clean the beach

Volunteer support to bring the rubbish up the beach for removal by council services was essential!

volunteers collaborated to clean the beach

Find out more about local beach clean up operations

Although StrandlinersCIC were able to share some of the info about this beach clean up on the day, there is pleny more information to come once the data has been collated and reviewed.

Andy Dinsdale of Strandliners is hoping to give a presentation of the full findings about the impact of pollution in the local area soon. Please do visit the EVENTS section of the Strandliners website to find out about this. Their poster (below) also has details on how to get involved …

Strandliners CIC beach cleaning 2021

Thanks to all our volunteers for their hard work today and a huge well done on such an amazing beach cleaning job to Strandliners.

Donations are very welcome, thank you.

Whilst you’re here …

As an independent charity providing rescue services, we are run solely by volunteers.

We receive no government or central funding and have to fundraise every penny needed to buy and maintain our equipment and to pay our considerable running costs.

Since the start of 2020, our running costs have increased to around £10,000 a year.

If you like the work we do and would like to support us, your donation would really be appreciated.

Anything you can spare will help us to help those in danger on our local coastline.

Thank you so much, from the volunteers at Pett Level Independent Rescue Boat.

Beach Cleaning Support for Strandliners

May 8, 2021

Lockdown has lifted just enough for us to help out a community beach cleaning project. 

Yes, we’re happy to share that on Sunday 9th May we’ll once again be helping Strandliners CIC in a major beach cleaning project. As the main photo above shows, the volunteers at Strandliners have been working hard to clear rubbish and pollution from the Cliff End and Fairlight Berm areas.

As regular readers of the blog will remember,  Strandliners organised a similar clean-up of the huge amount of plastic pollution, polystyrene and general rubbish at the berm last September.

This is a hard-to reach area of the coast which, because of the tidal flow, does tend to be a drop-zone for water-borne pollution. Once stuck behind the rocks though, it tends to stay, having a major impact on the wildlife and environment around the Berm.

So, once it’s all bagged up, there’s only one way to get the rubbish out of there …

 

beach cleanup 2020

Our volunteer crews ready to launch for the clean up last September

beach cleanup fairlight 2020

Bringing the rubbish from the boat to the slipway is all part of the clean up task.

The easiest way to remove the bagged up bulk is by boat. So, weather and ‘Shouts’ permitting, on Sunday 9th May around 11 am, we’ll be launching one or both of our boats, to go across to the berm. Once there, our crews and Strandliners volunteers will load up the boats with the rubbish and our crews will bring it back to the Pett Slip.

From there, it will be picked up by Rother Council, and there’s sure to be a lot of it, as the amount of bags from last September shows …

PLIRB community beach cleaning 2021

Get involved in beach cleaning …

This will all take place as part of our Sunday training and maintenance session at the boathouse. Some of the volunteers from StrandlinersCIC will also be at Pett Slip, so please do come and talk to them about their work and how to get involved in local beach cleaning – either as a volunteer with the group or as an individual.

As before, it’s important to mention that this beach cleaning project hasn’t just involved picking up rubbish and pollutants. Every single item being removed has been counted and sorted before being bagged up for removal. There’s more information from Strandliners in the poster below …

Strandliners CIC beach cleaning 2021

If you’d like to get involved at whatever level suits you as we come out of lockdown, please do pop down.

Andy of  Strandliners (pictured below from last year’s clean up) should be available to talk about the work of Strandliners. He’ll be at the boathouse end of the slip, outside and socially distanced, of course. Andy and Strandliners volunteers will be happy to explain how even the smallest clean up is welcome, and why the recording the rubbish and pollution along the coastline is a vital part of the campaign to clean up our coastline.

We are very pleased to be able to assist with beach cleaning community project, and to help preserve our local beaches. Check back for updates and photos this Spring’s rubbish retrieval soon!

If you would like to know more about Strandliners please visit www.Strandliners.org or follow on Twitter at info@strandlinerscic.

Poster credit: thanks to StrandlinersCIC 

Donations are very welcome, thank you.

Whilst you’re here …

As an independent charity providing rescue services, we are run solely by volunteers.

We receive no government or central funding and have to fundraise every penny needed to buy and maintain our equipment and to pay our considerable running costs.

Since the start of 2020, our running costs have increased to around £10,000 a year.

If you like the work we do and would like to support us, your donation would really be appreciated.

Anything you can spare will help us to help those in danger on our local coastline.

Thank you so much, from the volunteers at Pett Level Independent Rescue Boat.

Community Project – Fairlight Cove Clean Up

Sep 3, 2020

The ‘new normal’ is a continued adjustment period, but thankfully restrictions are lifted enough for community project work to carry on.

So we’re happy to share that on Sunday 6th September we’ll be supporting a community project close to our hearts and our boathouse … the Fairlight Cove Clean-Up!

The clean-up has been organised and carried out by Fairlight-based community interest company Strandliners. Teams of 6 volunteers have carried out 8 sessions of mammoth rubbish clearing behind the main three rock berms of Fairlight Cove. However, although the rubbish is now  bagged up, there’s the significant problem of getting it all off the beach.

Which is where we’re able to help. Weather permitting, on Sunday 6th September we’ll be launching both our boats to go and pick up the rubbish bags from the cove. Everything will be brought back to the slipway, where it will then be removed by Rother Council.

The plan is that we won’t carry out a training launch on our usual Sunday session at the boathouse. Instead our volunteers will be there slightly later, preparing to launch around noon, to assist with the rubbish clearance. Volunteers are not required to assist, but if anyone wants to stop by and speak to StrandlinersCIC about their work and how to get involved, they will be at the boathouse around noon.

More than a beach clean …

It’s worth pointing out that this beach clearance project has involved a significant amount of time and huge effort by the community volunteers involved in the Strandliners’ clean up. Every piece of debris and rubbish has been counted and sorted before being bagged up for clearance. This is so that firm data on the types, spread and impact of plastic and polystyrene pollution can be gathered. In turn, this data will inform wider conservation and environmental concerns and projects. There is more information on this in the Rye News and on the Strandliners website and social media.

We are very pleased to be able to assist with this community project, and to help preserve our local beaches. Check back for updates and photos of the rubbish retrieval soon!

If you would like to know more about Strandliners please visit www.Strandliners.org or follow on Twitter at info@strandlinerscic.

Image credits: Dee Rampling, thanks to StrandlinersCIC 

Donations are very welcome, thank you.

Whilst you’re here …

As an independent charity providing rescue services, we are run solely by volunteers.

We receive no government or central funding and have to fundraise every penny needed to buy and maintain our equipment and to pay our considerable running costs.

Since the start of 2020, our running costs have increased to around £10,000 a year.

If you like the work we do and would like to support us, your donation would really be appreciated.

Anything you can spare will help us to help those in danger on our local coastline.

Thank you so much, from the volunteers at Pett Level Independent Rescue Boat.