9 members of HMS Gannet Search and Rescue crew honoured for outstanding bravery
An almost unprecedented number – nine – crew from a single Search & Rescue (SAR) team – the twenty-man HMS Gannet – based at Prestwick and often in action around Argyll and west coast waters – have...
View ArticleOban & Islay Lifeboats in major rescue in Corryvreckan
Two RNLI lifeboats – from Oban and from Islay – and an SAR (Search & Rescue) helicopter launched to the assistance of a Coaster in the Sound of Jura last night (15th December).The Oban lifeboat was...
View ArticleDrunken Fingal skipper fined £3,300
59 year-old Stanlislaw Sowinski has been fined £3,300 at Oban Sheriff Court for skippering the 1,200 ton coaster, FIngal, while drunk, for failing to navigate a safe course, for failing to keep a...
View ArticleIceland sends water, money and SAR team to Haiti
We keep an eye on Iceland because Britain killed off one of its banks by using anti-terrorist legislation to seize its UK assets while it still had a chance of staying solvent. It had no chance, of...
View ArticleMather nails Government and MoD confusions over SAR privatisation
Jim Mather, Argyll’s MSP, is concerned about the confusion that has accompanied the Ministry of Defence announcement that it is to privatise Search and Rescue (SAR) Services long based at HMS Gannet at...
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Possible reprieve for HMS Gannet Search and Rescue
Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander, announced today (17th June) that certain projects approved in the reckless dying days of the previous UK government are to be cancelled and others suspended pending...
View ArticleOban LIfeboat launches to emergency beacon
The Oban Lifeboat, the Mora Edith Macdonald, was called out at twenty past midnight last night (9th August) in response to an EPIRB ‘hit’.The EPIRB – Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon – was...
View ArticlePrince William for Faslane on Thursday
Prince William may be a helicopter pilot attached to the Search and Rescue service – but hey, he’s also Commodore-in-Chief of Submarines. Superman or what?Joking apart, – well no, we’re only starting –...
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Search and Rescue privatisation suspended
Just as Prestwick’s HMS Gannet is announced as the 2010 busiest Search and Rescue (SAR) unit of the eight such units in the UK – the UK Government’s privatisation of the Search and Rescue service has...
View ArticleDramatic 20th April rescue on Staffa by HMS Gannet SAR
On 20th April a tourist boat with two adult crew, was making its way on sightseeing charter, to Argyll’s fabled Staffa. This is the island host to Fingals’s Cave which composer Felix Mendelssohn...
View ArticleLooks like some major incident in the hills between Oban and Crianlarich
[Updated below] Two ambulances, a helicopter and the Oban Mountain Rescue unit have been seen minutes ago between Oban and Crianlarich..There is no closure notice on the A85 so this would seem to be a...
View ArticleIs RAF short of winch men for Search and Rescue helicopters?
We understand that, at the meeting of the Cumbria Search and Rescue [SAR} Committee on 9th October 2012, information was given which, if correct, must be of concern to the public.A representative from...
View ArticleSAR Radio Operators’ certificates for Campbeltown lifeboat crew
Congratulations go out to eight members of Campbeltown’s RNLI volunteer crew, who have passed their Search and Rescue Radio Operators’ training course (SARROC) with flying colours.Organized by...
View ArticleLoch Fyne kayak tragedy: the reality and the issues
We have been talking with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency [MCA] about this incident and the issues it has raised.With the information we have been given, it is clear that the outcome would...
View ArticleDecoding helicopters
[Updated below, 26th March] There are so many helicopters in the air over Argyll’s Kintyre peninsula and the Isle of Arran these days, spotting isolated snowbound households in remote areas,...
View ArticleOban lifeboat in rescue of canoeist from Loch Leven – in silence from MCA on...
Oban lifeboat was on a shout to Loch Leven at 14,30 on Saturday 26th April when an over-turned canoe was reported seen two miles from Kinlochleven at 2.30pm.Coastguard Rescue teams from Fort William in...
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Donald Fullarton: New ambulance for Arrochar Mountain Rescue
A new rescue ambulance was presented by St John Scotland to the Arrochar Mountain Rescue Team today (Sunday 2nd June).The Chancellor of the Order of St John in Scotland, Douglas Dow, handed over the...
View Article‘Avast ye’– Tobermory’s Lifeboat Day to welcome all pirates
Lifeboat Day is the highlight of Tobermory RNLI’s calendar. The 2014 event in this famously scenic port is to have a pirate theme.The traditional cry of a pirate captain to instruct a vessel about to...
View ArticleWhile Tobermory Lifeboat’s Press Officer crew member was on holiday – shouts...
Dr Sam Jones, one of the volunteer crew of the Tobermory lifeboat, Elizabeth Fairlie Ramsey and its Press Officer, actually took a holiday.While she was away, the Severn class lifeboat and her...
View ArticleOpen minded new Transport Minister offers hope to Coastguard SOS campaign
After beating their heads and laying their evidence out before a series of uninterested short-stay Shipping Ministers, some of whom represented landlocked constituencies and had no personal...
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