Picture a scene; you’re on a beach somewhere – perhaps with a group of friends or walking the dog – and you happen to glance out to sea and glimpse something – you’re not sure what - in the water maybe a hundred yards or more away.
Ask yourself how easily would you see a solitary arm waving to shore against a constantly changing backdrop; a sea which is anything other than flat calm (would you see the man in the above photo were it not for the fact of his using a smoke candle in a calm sea - and there being the Caister Inshore Rescue Boat drifting a few yards away!?). Against a less benign backdrop would you notice the upturned, waterlogged, hull of a kayak (or larger craft) as it drifts a few hundred yards beyond the surf? Alternatively; perhaps you see a small inflatable dinghy drifting harmlessly offshore on a hot summer day, but – unless you spend more than a moment or two watching – would you notice how quickly it is being swept out to sea by a combination of wind and tide; and how alarmed the two young occupants were becoming? These are examples of something you might notice if you happened to be looking in the right direction at the right moment and, in all probability, for more than a few seconds - things which, for all its intent, modern technology cannot see. Now put yourself in the position of the person waving their arm, frantically trying to attract the attention of someone on a shore you can only occasionally glimpse as waves crash over you and you slowly become increasingly cold and tired; would you want to take a chance on the luck of someone happening to see something, realizing what it was they’d briefly glimpsed through the surf and then knowing what to do and who to contact (and, while doing all that, somehow keeping you in sight too!) Melodramatic perhaps but, in the run-up to the announcement of the closure of the Maritime Rescue Co-Ordination Centre (MRCC) at Great Yarmouth, we frequently found ourselves explaining what it is we do that is different to local Coastguards, and why we were not taking work from full-time professionals. Given that the re-organisation of the Maritime Coastguard Agency (MCA) has been a highly emotive national issue, we’d expect NCI colleagues elsewhere, or volunteers involved with similar sea safety organisations to ours, to have faced the same questions. There have been many cases where rapid and catastrophic failures aboard both small craft and merchant ships have gone unreported despite occurring within sight of shore. Additionally; a computer cannot spot a distress flare, an overturned yacht, a water sports enthusiast in difficulty, or seaside bathers in trouble. It was after one such incident – the loss of a small fishing boat and her two man crew within view of the then recently closed Coastguard lookout at Bass Point on the Lizard Peninsula – that the National Coastwatch Institution (NCI) was formed in 1994. Local people realised that, regardless of the technology available, there was - in the interest of the safety of all those at sea and along the coastline - a continuing need for visual watches around our coast. Consequently a voluntary group came together to refurbish and re-open the Bass Point lookout at the centre of the tragedy. Following an initial group of NCI stations around Cornwall, the institute extended its activities to a point where stations have been set up along the coast from Rossall Point in Lancashire, through Wales and along the south and east coasts to Sunderland in the North-East. Today in excess of fifty National Coastwatch stations keep a visual watch around the coastline of England and Wales. Subject to available funding and sufficient volunteers, more are in the pipeline. Dedicated to plugging gaps in coastal surveillance (NCI does not operate in areas where the Coastguard retain sea watch capabilities), each station has a qualified and highly trained team to watch over its own particular area be it popular seaside town, busy port or shipping area. The majority of NCI stations, including ourselves, have been inspected by the MCA and attained what is termed Declared Facility Status (DFS). Our attaining DFS status means that watchkeepers at Caister are deemed a resource qualified to assist the Coastguard as required. More recent additions to the NCI network are actively working toward their DFS assessment. |
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