The Barry Dock lifeboat was launched for the first time this year at 8.40pm last Saturday morning (23 January) to a small boat, which had reported that it was taking in water and in danger of sinking off Sully Island.
When the volunteer crew arrived, the three people on board were trying to ‘bail out’ the boat. When the lifeboat crew were able to inspect the boat, they found that there was a partial equipment failure. This was rectified and the Barry Dock lifeboat was able to escort the boat towards the Penarth marina.
On Friday 29 January, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution will be having its national day of fundraising; SOS Day. This is the main fundraising day of the year and we encourage people to raise money at special events by using the SOS theme, e.g. Sip Our Soup, Savour Our Sausages, Sing Our Sea songs etc.
On Friday we will be having a special guest to the station, Mr John Williams who has raised money for the SOS Day appeal. His grandson was rescued and successfully resuscitated by the Barry Dock lifeboat crew last year.
Gerry Adams, Barry Dock Volunteer Lifeboat Press Officer, said: ‘The money that is raised goes to operational costs, purchase of the very best equipment and training of the volunteer crews.
‘Last year the RNLI had its busiest year with over 9,000 launches of lifeboats and an increased presence on many more beaches in the UK through the RNLI lifeguards. When I was a crew member, for my first 18yrs with the Barry Dock lifeboat we used to average about 12 launches a year, and although 2009 was fairly quite for our station, we average 20 – 30 launches.’
