April has been a busy month for Swanage RNLI with Alice Haw successfully passing out as a Helm and five callouts.
Following successful completion of thirteen Helm training modules, and her final assessment, Alice said, “Today has been the result of months of hard work, and I’m proud that it’s all paid off and that I’m going to be able to use this opportunity to give back to the local community.”
Alice has been a member of the volunteer crew in Swanage for eight years and was inspired to join after growing up watching her dad, retired Swanage coxswain Chris Haw, head out on the lifeboat.
The pager sounded regularly, including for a fallen climber near Anvil Point.
The climber had fallen from around 7 meters when some gear failed, injuring his ankle. He had managed to climb back to a ledge to wait for help. His climbing partner had ascended the cliff to raise the alarm, and the fallen climber had also waved for assistance to the passing vessel Three Wishes, which had former lifeboat crew member Geoff Marsh aboard as skipper.
The crew quickly located the casualty on the rocks, and due to the location of the climber, the best route of extraction was by water. The Helm, Fergus Holley, made a careful approach in gentle rolling swell so that the ILB was alongside the rocks to receive the injured casualty.
The casualty was transferred from the rocks to the ILB and then on to the all-weather lifeboat (ALB) for the passage to Swanage, where an ambulance was waiting to take him to the hospital.
