Spirit Launch
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Wed 10 May 2017 22:57
|
Spirit of Padstow
Launch
 The day was spent in bed or in the
loo as the bug continued to rage in me. Being upright by half past five became a
huge ambition as Bear had returned from the little shop on the campsite with
intelligence. The RNLI training exercise takes place
this afternoon at six. I have always wanted to watch a launch. Well
then, you shall see it this very day, even if I have to crawl wearing an
unattractive nappy..............twenty to six and everything clenched......., we
walked slowly the little way from Maud to the beach,
(the corner of the campsite visible on the
right).
 Looking out over Polventon Bay.
 An anticipatory
Bear.
 Looking left, out toward the Merope Rocks – in the shadows RNLI Padstow.
  Zoomed in on the
Station and a building view from
Wiki.
   We bimbled along the
path toward the Station, but found too much shrubbery in the way. Walking back
to the other side of the bay we positioned ourselves on a wall and waited for
the practise launch to begin. Great excitement as the shed
door opened and the nose of the Spirit of
Padstow appeared, then more.
 There, she was fully out of her nest.
 Ready but why the wait ???, later we looked on YouTube and
saw that this is the time needed to fix aerials and equipment in
place.
 Like us, this couple were waiting for the action.
 Five minutes later,
off she went.
 Thrilling to see her get her feet wet.
  We could hear her
engines roar into gear.
  Spectacular to watch as
she made to round the rocks.
 Our admiration of these selfless and
brave men and women knows no
bounds.......
The Spirit of Padstow is a
Tamar-class lifeboats are all-weather lifeboats (ALBs) operated by the Royal National Lifeboat
Institution (RNLI) around the coasts of Great
Britain and Ireland. They have
replaced the majority of the older Tyne-class ALBs. The prototype was built in 2000
and twenty seven production boats were introduced between 2006 and
2013.
The class name comes from the River Tamar which flows through Plymouth Sound and into the English Channel, they were manufactured by Babcock International Group.
There she goes. We watched and bimbled home happy in the knowledge that the RNLI is always there – often for complete numpties.
ALL IN ALL A TRULY WONDERFUL THING TO WATCH ANOTHER LIFETIME AMBITION FULFILLED |
