Shortly after 11:00pm on Sunday 8th August, Guernsey Coastguard received a call from CROSS Jobourg (French Coastguard) reporting a 6.5 metre sailing vessel in difficulty approximately 10 miles southwest of Pleinmont Point. The sailing vessel was on passage from Ireland to France with one person on board and had suffered a total electrical failure several days previously. This had resulted in a failure of the vessel’s autopilot meaning the skipper had been steering manually for 3 days with no sleep. He was extremely tired and unable to radio for help with his only means of communication being sporadic use of a battery-powered satellite phone.
St Peter Port Lifeboat “Spirit of Guernsey” launched on service shortly before midnight and was on scene with the casualty at 12:52am. The weather on scene was poor and the vessel was making very slow progress. The Lifeboat had difficulty communicating with the casualty due to the lack of a working radio however, a line was successfully passed to the vessel and she was towed to St Peter Port arriving shortly before 04:00 am. The skipper was extremely fatigued but otherwise safe and well.
AIS tracking courtesy of DigimapPic by Tony Rive 09-08-2021 A 6.5 metre French Yacht that was towed into St Peter Port in the early hours by the Spirit of Guernsey from approximately 10 miles West of Pleinmont Point (Guernsey’s Southwest coast)
At 20:33 on Monday 26 July 2021, Guernsey Coastguard was contacted by the sailing vessel “Pluto” which had broken down in the Big Russel, due East of Herm. The vessel was struggling against the flood tide and a crew member on board was suffering from seasickness.
A Pan-Pan broadcast was made to see if there were any vessels in the area that could assist “Pluto” however there were none and at 20:55 the St Peter Port all-weather lifeboat “Spirit of Guernsey” was launched to the assist “Pluto”.
The Lifeboat arrived on scene at 21:26 and established a tow with the casualty vessel, bringing it safely back into St Peter Port Harbour at 22:57, where the tow was handed over to Guernsey Harbour’s marina staff.
The St Peter Port lifeboat was back on station at 23:10.
At 17:32 on Monday 19th July 2021, Guernsey Coastguard was alerted to 2 kayakers in difficulty 500 metres off of Albecq. Police Officers attended the scene and reported 2 kayakers out of their kayaks and clearly in difficulty.
St Peter Port Inshore Lifeboat “Elizabeth and Margaret Milligan” and All-Weather Lifeboat “Spirit of Guernsey” were paged and launched on service at 17:37 and 17:49 respectively.
In the meantime, Police Officers managed to get a throw line to the kayakers as they drifted closer to shore at Fort Hommet and pull them to safety. Both kayakers were then placed in the care of St John Paramedics.
The Lifeboats were both back on their moorings by 18:15.
At 7:52 am on Tuesday 13th July 2021, Guernsey Coastguard was alerted to 2 swimmers struggling in the tide 100 metres east of Bordeaux Harbour. A Police Officer attended the scene and reported 2 swimmers clinging to a buoy waving to attract attention.
St Peter Port Inshore Lifeboat “Elizabeth and Margaret Milligan” was paged and launched on service at 8:10 am. Several vessels responded to a MAYDAY RELAY broadcast by Guernsey Coastguard.
Deputy Cox Danny Blake was nearby but knew that because of the traffic, there was no point in trying to get to the harbour in time as Second Cox Jason Norman would arrive at the lifeboat station before him. He saw the Police stood on the shore and asked what the problem was. He borrowed a dinghy and rowed out to the swimmers who were both exhausted, clinging to the outermost buoy. They held on to the stern of the dinghy and he brought them most of the way back to shore when a powered boat came to assist.
The Inshore Lifeboat arrived at Bordeaux at 8:19 am and the casualties were transferred across from the motor cruiser before being landed ashore at Bordeaux Harbour where they were checked over by paramedics. The Inshore Lifeboat arrived back on station in St Peter Port at 8:30 am.
The volunteers at St Peter Port RNLI have been chosen to receive The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service (QAVS). The prestigious award is the highest award given to local volunteer groups across the UK and recognises ‘outstanding groups of volunteers whose level of initiative and impact are truly exceptional.’
photo by Tony Rive 2021
Established in 2002 as part of the UK honours system to recognise the work of grassroots organisations at a local level, the award is to recognise the work of the whole station from the committee members and fundraisers to the crew on the boat.
St Peter Port Lifeboat Station is one of 241 charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups to receive the prestigious award this year, showing that the voluntary sector is thriving and full of innovative ideas to make life better for those around them.
Jim Le Pelley, Chairman of the Lifeboat Management Group at St Peter Port said, “This is a great honour for the St Peter Port Lifeboat Station which recognises that the whole of the operation of the station is run by volunteers. All the crew of the lifeboat have shown exceptional extra dedication throughout the period of the pandemic. But the award recognises not just their service but that of all the volunteers of the station including committee members, fundraisers and supporters, past and present, who have all contributed to saving lives at sea.”
Chris Harvey, Lifeboats Operations Manager at St Peter Port said, ‘We are honoured and delighted to receive The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service which recognises the hard work and dedication of everyone involved in the station here at St Peter Port. It’s been a busy two years for the station. Alongside our All Weather Lifeboat, we are currently trialling the use of an Inshore Lifeboat for incidents closer to the cliffs and shore.
This has meant the crew completing a significant amount of additional training to operate the new lifeboat, in a year where we experienced the highest ever number of call outs. The station has shown an exceptional response to the situation and two of our crew Jason Norman and Danny Blake undertook additional training to qualify as trainer-assessors themselves to speed up the process of getting the lifeboat on station.’
Established in 1803, St Peter Port lifeboat station has responded to over 1,500 shouts. As well as serving the Guernsey community, St Peter Port lifeboat station assists in providing a medivac service for the smaller islands of Herm and Sark. Each crew member will also receive a special badge in recognition of the way they dealt with the challenges resulting from the pandemic in ensuring that the lifeboats remained in service during lockdown and that covid patients could be safely transported.
At 23:29 on Saturday 29th May 2021, Guernsey VTS received a radio call from the small motor vessel ‘Taz’ which was seeking assistance. The vessel had 4 people onboard and had suffered mechanical failure approximately 1 nautical mile east of St Peter Port Harbour.
Guernsey VTS passed co-ordination of the incident to Guernsey Coastguard who attempted to gain assistance from any vessels in the area but unfortunately no help was available.
St Peter Port Lifeboat “Spirit of Guernsey” was launched and proceeded to the assistance of ‘Taz’ at 23:55. Once located, a tow was quickly established and ‘Taz’ was towed safely back to St Peter Port Harbour, arriving at 00:15 on 30th May, where the tow was handed over to Guernsey Ports marina staff.
‘Taz’ was safely secured to a pontoon by 00:35 and the incident was closed shortly afterwards.
