VIEW FROM THE TOWER!

 NCI Flag At Half-Mast Today If you came past our station today, you might have noticed that we are flying our flag at half-mast, and you probably wondered why. It is with great sadness that we learned that Bob, who served as our quartermaster for many years, passed away peacefully yesterday.  Our flag is at half-mast to respect his memory, and to commemorate his years of service to NCI. The photo was taken as HMS Dauntless, seen in the background, was returning home.

New Years Day Dip raises funds for GAFIRS and Gosport NCI.   Following GAFIRS New Year's Day sponsored swim, NCI Gosport watchkeepers Lesley and Caroline were delighted to hand over £280 to coxswain Brian and crew this morning. GAFIRS, also a voluntary organisation, do a tremendous job saving lives in the Solent and we enjoy having a shared purpose. An equal amount was raised for NCI Gosport.        

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...

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...