VOLUNTEERS from Somerset's four lifeboat stations will be on duty this Christmas ready to launch and answer calls for help.
Two Portishead volunteers who were part of a team that responded to a call for help on Boxing Day last year have reflected on the experience.
The pager sounded at around 2.20pm after a small vessel broke down beyond Blake Nore Lighthouse in the Bristol Channel with four people on board.
With no power and a fast-outgoing tide, the casualties managed to temporarily secure themselves to a buoy and wait for help to arrive.
Bruce du Preez and Susan Beaton were among the rescue crew.
Bruce, who has volunteered with the Portishead lifeboat crew for 20 years, said: “The pager went off just as my wife’s family had arrived for a Boxing Day lunch.
“We hadn’t really started to enjoy it together yet but, as on so many occasions over the years, of course dinner can always be put aside but a shout can’t.
“You don’t always know what you are going to when the pager goes, but the unique nature of this shout was that we had a little time to discuss possible solutions prior to the launching the boat.
“We took spare fuel with us in case they had ran out, fortunately that turned out to be the case.
“(There was) a simple solution, thankfully, and we escorted the four casualties on board their boat back to the marina.
“Lunch was a little cold but at least we helped to make a difference to the casualties that day.”
Fellow volunteer crew member and trainee helm Susan will also be on call. She was enjoying her Christmas leave when the pager went last year.
She said: “I was about to call my family who live in Scotland. I had missed visiting them over Christmas as I had gone down with Covid.
“It had been a long time since I had seen them, but when the pager goes, so do we.
“It was a good outcome on the shout, and I was able to catch up with the family when we got back to shore.”
Rescues are only possible because of donations from the RNLI's supporters who help fund crews' essential kit, training and equipment.
Lucy Ashton, Regional Engagement Manager at the RNLI, said: “Even at Christmas, our lifesavers are ready to drop everything at a moment’s notice and rush to the aid of someone in trouble on the water.
“But we couldn’t rescue people without kind donations from the public which fund the kit, training and equipment we need to save others and get home safely, at Christmas and all year round.”
To make a donation to the RNLI’s Christmas Appeal, visit: RNLI.org/Xmas.
Somerset's four lifeboat stations are located in Minehead, Burnham-on-Sea, Weston-super-Mare and Portishead.
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