Incident Summary 2022 Watchkeepers at NCI Gosport logged more than 30 incidents in 2022. An incident is any event that NCI participated in and for which the Coastguard or other authorities issued an incident number. The following notes are from our logs…. Pan Pan from sail training ship with steering loss, 16 POB. Casualty proceeded to anchorage under power, emergency steering working. When wind abated, casualty proceeded to home port, Pan Pan cancelled. Pan Pan from broken down yacht at harbour entrance. 4 POB. Motor vessel standing by. NCI informed HMCG they had visual. 2 Police RIBs and harbour patrol attending. Assets stood down as anchor holding, and Sea Start on its way. Casualty towed to safety, CG informed, Pan Pan cancelled. Yacht issued Mayday /steering failure. NCI informed HMCG had visual. HM dispatched assistance and police launch provided assistance. Mayday cancelled. HMCG requested visual search from NCI of upturned vessel, with one person on hull. Unable to establish vi...
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Man Overboard ! NCI Watchkeepers looking out at the ‘View From The Harbour Entrance’ often see things that are, to put it carefully, less than ideal. Vessels which are not using the Small Boat Channel, are going too fast, appear to be overloaded, etc. Some of these things have been written up in this blog in the hope that eventually we will see them less often. However, there is one thing that we see very seldom, and would actually like to see - or hear - much more often. And that’s vessels practicing man overboard drills. You might well ask why we mention this now, during the winter, when boating activity is very much reduced as a result of the poorer weather, poorer visibility, and shorter daylight hours. Actually, it’s worth considering because of the poorer weather, visibility, and shorter daylight hours. Poor weather, choppier seas, and more spray make for difficult movement on slippery spray-wet decks. Poor vis and less daylight makes the person in the water harder to find. And f...
Life of the Senior Management Committee It takes a lot of people to keep an NCI station running; officers of the Senior Management Committee (SMC) meet monthly to deal with issues such as maintenance, training, roster, welfare, etc. These meetings always include a representative from the Watchkeeper community. These are some comments from the Watchkeeper representative who attended our most recent meeting… I have now represented the members twice as the monthly rep at the management committee meeting. Both times I have found really interesting. We all attend in uniform and sit around the big table at the sailing club. The agenda is full for each of the officers to give an update from previous meetings as well as any new agenda items. As each item is reported on, everyone is given a chance to respond or make a comment/ suggestion. I feel that everyone is listened to and all comments are heard. It gives you an insight into what goes on behind the scene in running the group and how fair...
Mayday Relay! A dramatic event made the headlines during the summer as can be seen from the newspaper extract above. Watchkeepers Janet and Mike were on duty that evening in the NCI Lookout tower at Fort Blockhouse; the following is Janet’s account of what happened…… "Back in the summer I was on watch with Mike for the evening. The tide had just turned and being ‘springs’ it was rushing out of the harbour. Things were quietening down from a busy day with swimmers, jumpers and large groups of youths on the beach. When we saw a group that had been playing with an inflatable ball at the waters edge watching the ball floating out with the tide. One of the youths started to swim after it. We realised he was not going to be able to catch it up and decided it looked as though he was going to get into difficulties. We initiated a mayday relay to the coastguard on Channel 16. After the initial call it was a case of following the instructions given by the coastguard and answering their ...
Mayor of Gosport 100 Award. The Mayor of Gosport, Cllr Jamie Hutchison, presented special awards in November to help mark the 100th anniversary of Gosport becoming a borough. Cllr Hutchison said: "As part of the borough's 100th anniversary, I wanted to celebrate the achievements of people who make a difference in our community. They could be people who organise community events, or who do valuable work like caring for others or litter-picking. The list of possibilities is endless - I'm just looking for people who have made a positive contribution to their neighbourhood or the borough as a whole." NCI Gosport was nominated for an award, which was presented to Station Manger Colin Church at a recent ceremony. This is his account…. "Following his recent visit to the Signal Tower, home of NCI Gosport, we were fortunate enough to be nominated for the Mayor of Gosport’s Volunteer Team award. The Ceremony, held at the GBC offices, was attended by myself (Colin Churc...
Gosport National Coastwatch Station Honours The “Eternal Watchkeeper” Several of the National Coastwatch personnel based at National Coastwatch Institution Gosport are veterans of the Royal Navy’s Submarine Service which was based here at HMS Dolphin for many years before the Submariners’ Training School was finally moved to HMS Raleigh at Torpoint in Cornwall in 1998. HMS Dolphin had been the headquarters of Flag Officer Submarines since 1901 and it is only fitting that all those who served in the “Silent Service” should be commemorated by this fine memorial sculpture of Leading Seaman Reginald Read who had served as a Torpedo Gunner in submarines between 1939 and 1947. He is depicted as the “Eternal Watchkeeper” on lookout duty at sea with his binoculars at the ready, a scene still replicated today by highly trained National Coastwatch Volunteers as they watch over the safety of people and vessels in the congested waters of the Eastern Solent. The original full-...
Donation 'Thank You' Following receipt of a generous donation from Wightlink, Watchkeepers at NCI Gosport wanted to present a 'Thank You' certificate to them. Having turned up at the car ferry terminal in Portsmouth, the team was surprised and delighted to be invited aboard the Wightlink flagship, Victoria of Wight to do the presentation on the bridge to the ships master while en-route to Fishbourne and back . Escorted by Karen Woods, head of Communications and PR, the team met and spoke with Capt A Grocott. The pictures here show Station Manager Colin Church presenting the framed certificate to Capt Grocott, and also other members of the team - Bev Livermore and DSMs Caroline Hildrew and Richard Suggitt - who were mostly wondering what all the buttons do. Finally, a friendly wave as we went past the Signal Tower from on-duty Watchkeeper Neil Richardson (who only got slightly damp in the rain). A magnifying glass may be helpful here....
NCI Gosport and The Big Red Button We have to begin by admitting to a bit of artistic license here… there is no big red button (BRB) that we press to raise the alarm when we see people or vessels in distress; mostly we use VHF channel 16 instead. But for every occasion when we do raise the alarm (and there has been some recently which were very well publicised), there must be a dozen or more occasions where we see something that has our hands metaphorically hovering over that big red button, only for the situation to resolve itself. For example…. There were these youngsters jumping into the water from the top of the round tower. Anyone in their right mind will agree that this is not a clever thing to do. Apart from all the other dangers, the jumper has to run fast enough to ensure that he (and it’s almost always a he) clears the 2-metre wide concrete apron that encircles the base of the tower. A few of the group did this with no evident trouble, exiting the water by climbing over the ...
Sound Signals This is an informal summary of the signals which are defined in The International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1972, Part D, Rule 32, with our comments in itialics. These signals are delivered by means of a ‘short blast’ (one seconds duration) on the ships whistle or hooter. Here they are… 1 blast “Vessel altering course to starboard” 2 blasts “Vessel altering course to port.” These could mean that the vessel is making a 90 degree turn to the right or left, or just moving to the right or left, possibly to go past you. Most often we hear them used when ferries are turning from the main channel into the swashway (and vice-versa) to warn smaller vessels in the area. Just recently though we have started hearing vessels use one blast as a general ‘lookout’ warning. 3 blasts “I am operating astern propulsion” This does not mean that the vessel is going astern, only that the engines have been put astern. The vessel m...
Leisure Vessel Survey Over the last week of August NCI Gosport conducted a survey of leisure vessels using the harbour, counting the various types and they passed the lookout station coming in or going out. You might be surprised (or maybe not...) to learn that in that week there the total number of movements exceeded 4,000. This was just leisure vessels and did not include such things as ferries, fishing boats, pilot boats, or military vessels. Yachts topped the bill, with motor boats a fairly close second and ribs coming third. Jetskis were represented, but the number was small, and the number of kayaks was smaller still. Here's the full breakdown... Our fundraiser has pointed out that if we had placed a bucket at the harbour entrance and every vessel had thrown a £1 into it, we could be sure of keeping our lookout service running for many months to come. If you prefer to throw a small sum our way electronically, please visit the donation page on our website https://www.nc...
Your Generosity Needed To Support NCI. Following a weekend which on three occasions saw swimmers get into difficulties off the Hot Walls beach and need to be rescued, when all were observed and monitored by NCI Watchkeepers, who on one occasion called a Mayday, it’s time to talk about Watchkeepers. All NCI Watchkeepers – including those who man the Gosport station - are volunteers. They all give their time freely and without conditions, not only when standing watches, but also when training, doing their annual assessments, and attending monthly training meetings. They do it because they believe that the job is important and worthwhile, and they want to be able to keep on doing it. To do this they ask one thing of you, and one thing only. Your support Gosport NCI station receives no public or government funding. Overall it costs at least £3000 a year to keep the station open. At the moment we need to raise an extra £1000 to replace a vital PC. Your generosity, through your donati...
One of the best-kept secrets…. S ir Robin Knox-Johnston once called NCI “one of the best-kept secrets in Search and Rescue”, meaning that while we do what we hope is a good job, very few people have heard about us. The main reason is that our work involves communication with HM Coastguard (and to a lesser extent locally, the Portsmouth Harbour Master), but very seldom with other people. Often, a casualty will call the Coastguard, and be helped by the rescue vessels, without ever knowing that NCI was involved. For example:- Consider an evening in early July this year. Two watchkeepers came on duty to cover the 4pm to 7.30pm watch. Given that NCI is a maritime safety organisation, watchkeepers can perhaps be forgiven for anticipating and looking for potential problems. However, scanning the area with their binoculars revealed nothing of concern happening up-harbour, and although there were a few people fishing off the rocks near the harbour entrance none of them seemed in danger of...
Distress Signals How do you call for help when you have an emergency situation, are in "grave and imminent“ danger and need immediate assistance? Conversely, and equally important, if someone else needs assistance, would you recognise the distress signals that they are making? The international SOLAS (Safety Of Life At Sea) regulations list several ways in which distress can be signalled by day and/or by night. For simplicity, let’s put them into groups… It’s possible that only very large vessels will use these signals:- Signal flags ‘N’ and ‘C’ hoisted on a signal mast. A black square shape hoisted over a black round shape (or vice-versa) on a signal mast. Noise (eg gunfire) at regular intervals. Continuous sounding of fog horn. SOS by morse on radio. SOS by morse on signal lamp. A burning bucket of tar or oil on the rear deck. [Maybe a bit archaic, but then again, it’s still an official signal, and flame or smoke coming from any vessel for any reason is bad news]. Perhap...
‘Time and Tide’ Part 2 In case the illustration gives readers the impression that NCI concerns itself only with the safety of yachtsmen, this is perhaps a good time to make it clear that NCI keeps a watch over all waterborne craft and also anyone who near the shore – eg on cliffs, beaches, sea walls etc. Everyone “In, on or near the water” is not exactly an official motto, but it does describe the area and people we keep watch over. The subject of this blog post … as you might guess from the picture … is ‘Grounding’; this is something that can happen to any vessel, be it yacht, powerboat, or rowing skiff. Watchkeepers at NCI Gosport logged a total of three groundings in our watch area during the year 2021, but for some reason the problem seems to be growing - there have been at least four groundings logged so far in the first six months of 2022, and the number keeps growing. Some grounding incidents are pretty minor and present no real problems in getting fr...
Time and Tide Part 1 This article in the ‘View from the Harbour Entrance’ blog looks at some of the problems caused by tides. Given how incredibly accurate tide predictions can be, and how easy it is to get hold of those predicted tide times and heights, you might think that watercraft users would never suffer tide-related problems. Unfortunately, in practice, you would sometimes be wrong. That’s not to say that everyone hits problems caused by tides – far from it. But there is one particular event that you can almost guarantee we will observe at almost every spring tide. Before we launch into that, let’s review where you can get tide information. Well, there are plenty of almanacs and harbour guides available containing tide information (note that times are invariably given in GMT, so you have to adjust by one hour in the summer). You can also get a tide app for your smartphone. Next, the QHM (Queens Harbour Masters) website gives tide information for that day; a good place to go is h...
The view of the Gosport Station from the Round Tower I was on my PC today and came across a number of videos on YouTube that describe National Coastwatch and its operation pretty well. If you have an idle few minutes, and want to learn more about NCI, you may like to watch these... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfjX554jnaE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SqCOcLAfpM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPtJ0aeclJg NCI Poulran BBC Spotlight - December 1st 2010 CoastWatch.mp4 - YouTube Do please bear in mind that some of the vidos are ten years old or more, and some of the statistics and numbers of stations are out of date. Just to set the record straight, as of end 2021... There were about 56 operational NCI stations Which participated in about 700 incidents.... half of which were initiated by NCI. By the way - if only a few posts are visible in this blog, click on the ‘Older Posts’ link towards the bottom of the page to see more....
'Round The Island' Race I've taken the liberty of copying a post from our Facebook page about the recent 'Round The Island' race... "Yesterday the annual Round the Island race took place in force 4-6 winds. Many competitors departed and returned to Portsmouth and NCI Gosport was operational from 06.00 until sunset. We had a busy day with many radio check requests on Channel 65 and followed numerous Mayday and PanPan calls. We relayed a PanPan to Solent Coasyguard from a vessel aground on Bembridge ledge taking on water and with engine failure and had ‘eyes on’ a yacht grounded on Ryde Sands. In addition HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier entered the harbour and the Japanese guided missile destroyer Shimakaze and HMS Dauntless departed." Now that was a busy day !
NCI Gosport 14th Anniversary It just so happens that our last monthly Training & Admin meeting fell on 1st June 2022, which is the 14th Anniversary of the opening of the NCI Gosport station (1 June 2008). To record the event for posterity, we were able to get group photo of everyone present. [Unfortunately a few people could not make the meeting, so we were about a dozen short].
Station Manager Interview For this Blog entry we interviewed Colin Church, Station Manger of NCI Gosport, to find out more about NCI and how the Gosport station operates. Q. We know that the NCI Gosport station overlooks the harbour entrance at Fort Blockhouse, but when did it first open ? Colin. The station opened in 2008 and has been in continuous operation since then, apart from a brief hiatus due to the covid lockdown. Q. How many volunteers man the station ? How many are there at any one time ? Colin. We have about 60 volunteers - more formally called ‘Watchkeepers’ - at Gosport. We open the station at 9am each day with two watchkeepers on duty; they hand over to another two at 12.30pm. In the summer months another two come on duty at 4pm; they close the station at 7.30pm. We have an online rostering system so that watchkeepers can choose what days and times they wish to be on duty. On average each watchkeeper will be on duty about three times per month. Q. Can anyone...
NCI - The Beginning It seems like a good idea in this first post to describe how NCI itself started. To be brief, the first station opened in October 1994, but to set the scene you have to look back a few more years. Up to 1991, the Coastguard operated and maintained a comprehensive network of manned lookout stations round the coast of the UK. By the end of 1992 however, following a period of rationalisation and modernisation, most of these had closed. The seas round the UK can be capricious, dangerous, and take vessels and lives. In 1994 it took two more – two local fishermen who drowned near the recently-closed lookout at Bass Point. One can only imagine how feelings – sadness, anger, resentment perhaps - ran in the local communities. But the people there did something remarkable; instead of making protests they made history, trying to ensure that this sort of tragedy would not happen again. Following well-supported public meetings they obtained funding from generous don...
Welcome ! Welcome to the NCI Gosport Blog ! It comprises a series of articles from Watchkeepers at NCI Gosport, based on their experiences of what they see at hear while on watch in the lookout tower at the harbour entrance. We hope to post new articles from time to time. Just to be formal, please note that these are personal statements and do not necessarily reflect the official view of NCI Gosport or NCI nationally. However, we hope that you find them interesting and useful.