Imagine being a volunteer getting a phone call on a dark and stormy night, with winds gusting up to 50 kmh. You've got to get up at 3 am with no time for a shower or coffee to clear your mind, as you fumble for the keys to your 150 cc Moped and struggle with the kick-start ("I should've bought a new battery," you think). After a 20 minute helter-skelter ride through driving rain, you unfreeze your fingers from the handlebars and face a 150 Metre marathon along that exposed walkway, battling freezing waves crashing into your 25 year-old face, (as yet unprotected by an "old salt's beard"), and barely manage to open the door to the RNLI Station. Fellow mariners greet you warmly by ribbing you for being 5 minutes late. "Quick, get your Civvy clothes off, and put your safety gear on, we're leaving in 7 minutes . . . We've got lives to save."
Imagine being a volunteer getting a phone call on a dark and stormy night, with winds gusting up to 50 kmh. You've got to get up at 3 am with no time for a shower or coffee to clear your mind, as you fumble for the keys to your 150 cc Moped and struggle with the kick-start ("I should've bought a new battery," you think). After a 20 minute helter-skelter ride through driving rain, you unfreeze your fingers from the handlebars and face a 150 Metre marathon along that exposed walkway, battling freezing waves crashing into your 25 year-old face, (as yet unprotected by an "old salt's beard"), and barely manage to open the door to the RNLI Station. Fellow mariners greet you warmly by ribbing you for being 5 minutes late. "Quick, get your Civvy clothes off, and put your safety gear on, we're leaving in 7 minutes . . . We've got lives to save."