Last weekend, Colin Shales, who is often found manning his collection box at St Catherine’s Breakwater, stopped off at the RNLI station in St Martin where crew counted up the donations he had collected.
The handover came during a busy few days for both of the Island’s lifeboat stations with three call-outs, a planned exercise, mechanical tests and station visits.
On Saturday at around 7.15 pm, crew from St Catherine were requested to launch their inshore vessel after receiving a report of a boat with engine difficulties.
However, before the lifeboat had arrived, the vessel had managed to make its way to its mooring.
The following morning, at 3.10 am, Jersey Coastguard received a call from a sailing yacht which had broken down to the east of Sark.
As winds were light, the vessel was unable to use its sails to make its way back to Jersey and the St Helier all-weather-lifeboat, George Sullivan, was dispatched. It met the vessel before taking it back to the Harbour under tow.
Then, at 2.30 pm, the George Sullivan was launched again to assist a yacht which was taking on water, 8.5 nautical miles north-west of Grosnez.
However, soon after, the skipper of the yacht reported that on-board pumps were coping with the leak and the vessel was able to make its own way back to the Harbour, with the lifeboat supervising alongside.
During the same weekend, the St Helier crew also had to complete an exercise and a station visit, as well as engine trials due to an issue with a sensor.
And on Sunday, the crew of the St Catherine station welcomed their French counterparts from the Société Nationale de Sauvetage en Mer’s Gouville station in Normandy.
