Bad Things You Need To Know About Falling Into The Sea In December we published a blog article about Man Overboard drills. This article describes some of the consequences of a Man Overboard from a medical viewpoint. Keep in mind that the day it was posted here, BrambleMet showed a water temperature of 9 o C… only slightly warmer that the inside of most fridges. Ed. Written by NCI Watchkeeper Dr Chris Aps FRCA UK waters are cold. Around Portsmouth the coldest sea temperatures are seen in February and March and are between 7 and 9 degrees Celsius. Although warmer in the summer, reaching a peak in September, it rarely approaches 20 o C. Bearing in mind your normal core temperature is 37 o C, the difference between your temperature and the sea’s is huge, whatever the time of year. The bigger that difference, the more quickly heat energy escapes from your body into the water. People think that swimming and thrashing about will help you keep wa...
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New 'Island' near Hurst Castle... Dont Get Caught Out ! There have been changes at Hurst spit at the western entrance of the Solent. A new shingle bank has formed and is fully visible at low tide. The “island” has gradually built up over the last few months to the east of historic Hurst Castle. The new shingle bank is in an area where many boaters entering the Solent against the ebb tide, having successfully negotiated the Trap, will turn north to get out of the strongest tides, particularly if heading in to anchor or are destined for Keyhaven or Lymington. It is believed that the shingle bank has formed naturally as a result of work to protect the castle from coastal erosion after one of its walls collapsed in 2021, since when many of tonnes of shingle have since been dug up from the seabed to bolster Hurst Spit. The excavations have altered the tidal currents and conditions which in turn has moved the shingle about, causing the new bank...
A Quiet Time Of Year You would be right in assuming that the activity of NCI Gosport slows down somewhat at this time of year. The short days and poor weather of January and February drastically reduce the amount of leisure traffic in the harbour and the Solent. But you would be wrong to think that we close down or become completely dormant during these months. To begin with, the NCI Gosport lookout station was fully crewed during this time; a total of 59 days, operating a daylight watch with two watchkeepers on duty amounts to 826 person-hours of work. [About one third of our watchkeepers are female.] During that time our training team were involved with the training of seven new volunteers, and that included running three or four evening sessions for them as well as the ‘on the job’ training. Training doesn’t stop with new volunteers though, as every watchkeeper stands a watch with a trainer to do a ‘refresher’, ensuring that skills and knowledge are still...
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...