Latest / AbersochPodcast / Eyes on the Ocean | Andy Smith on Sea Safety and Coastal Life

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Eyes on the Ocean | Andy Smith on Sea Safety and Coastal Life · AbersochPodcast

0:10
Good afternoon. Well, this is the Dunker's
0:13
podcast and we're, this is at #1 we're out on our first roadshow.
0:18
Well, not exactly a roadshow, but we're out and we're away
0:22
from the studio, away from the kitchen table, as most of you
0:26
know. And I'm actually at a Coast
0:29
Watch station in Nevin. I've probably got that slightly
0:34
wrong. The address might be a bit
0:35
different. However, the the boss of this
0:39
Coastwatch station, Andy Smith, is going to be with us today.
0:43
And as we've left our kitchen table, Criccieth, which is very
0:49
near, is the home to Andy. And he proves that life is
0:54
better when you say yes. Simple as that.
0:57
From collecting cars to helping launch Vodafone into the mobile
1:01
stratosphere. And he's always been a man ahead
1:04
of the curve. Unless that curve involves
1:06
restoring another classic sports car.
1:10
Gary's space is a bit tight, I believe we'll ask him about that
1:13
these days. He swapped board rooms for
1:16
binoculars, running the Coastwatch station and keeping
1:19
an eye on the vast unpredictable Irish Sea and probably a few
1:24
dunkers bobbing around off duty. Andy's a family man, 4 kids was
1:30
3 wives. Current wife.
1:32
Kay is an artistic Kate genius and an absolute legend and we
1:36
all love her to death. And a total softy when it comes
1:39
to dogs, Wagga Tail and Andy. I'll melt.
1:43
Join us as we chat to Andy on site at this Coast Watch post
1:47
with real sea spray, a bit of wind, pardon me, and probably
1:52
more background noise than usual because life at the edge of the
1:56
land. It's where the stories really
1:58
start. Andy, welcome to Dunkers
2:01
Podcast. Thank you, Mark.
2:03
Thanks for that wonderful introduction, makes me sound
2:06
very important. So can you give me the address?
2:10
Where, where? Where exactly are we are near
2:13
Nevin, aren't we? Yeah, this is Porthin Klein
2:16
Head. So anybody that's listening that
2:20
knows where they are in a live station is or the Teacock, the
2:23
pub. If you walk past the Teacock,
2:25
which is hard, and then past the ROI station where the little
2:29
white cubed building right on the end of the point was a Coast
2:36
Guard station many, many years ago.
2:39
And it has, you know, roughly a kind of 240 degree 250° view
2:45
from here of of the sea. So we've got a great view of
2:50
people that are vessels that are coming in and out, whether it's
2:54
to visit the pub or whether it's fishermen or or people out on
2:58
yachts. And we'll get into that a little
3:01
bit in a, in a few minutes. First of all, though, I mean,
3:05
Andy, because this is the Dunker's podcast.
3:07
Andy, you're a dunker, but in in a more remote and certainly on a
3:13
Stony beach place than we are because cricket has got a lovely
3:17
coastline but there's lots of stones.
3:19
Yes, you've got to pick your time to go in.
3:22
It's it's actually best to go in when the tide is in.
3:25
But then you've got the the Stony walk out to get get into
3:29
deeper water. If you go in when the tide's
3:32
out, you get sand, but you've got a long way to get out.
3:35
I'm, I'm curious, do you when you do go dunking, do you find
3:40
that it sort of changes your mindset?
3:43
Do you have a a new affinity with the water because you're
3:46
spending, oh, you're spending hours up here.
3:49
The honest answer is don't do enough of it.
3:51
Neither of us do. But we both love it and we've
3:54
just come back from Port Isaac on holiday and we did some
3:58
dunking down there in the Bay in Port Isaac, which was lovely.
4:01
Port Isaac, Devon, Cornwall. Yeah, yeah.
4:03
Devon, the home of Doc Martin. Ah, right.
4:07
Yeah, OK. Dunning Place.
4:08
Yeah. And isn't isn't it also the home
4:10
of a a a little group of singers?
4:13
It is Fisherman's friends, yeah. Fisherman's friends, yeah.
4:16
Right, did did you manage to swing a chord or two with them?
4:22
No, but it's a slightly interesting story.
4:24
But we did meet John Cleve, who's the he's often known as
4:30
the kind of lead of Fisherman's Friends.
4:31
He's got the kind of handlebar mustache and the bald head.
4:34
We've met him twice now when we've been down there and once
4:39
got invited to genuinely a private party that he had in the
4:43
pub on the front where Fisherman's Friends was filmed.
4:49
Wow. It was his birthday and I bumped
4:52
into him walking Zappy and German Shepherd and he he gave
4:55
the shepherd a fuss and we got chatting and he invited us to
5:00
the pub and we got a a private concert because he said a couple
5:04
of his mates were willing to join in.
5:06
But it turned out all the band bar about two were there and
5:09
there was only maybe 20 people in the bar.
5:11
It was amazing. Fantastic, fantastic.
5:14
So it was a concert for you? It was fabulous, Absolutely
5:18
Fabulous. So from dunking into singing,
5:22
yeah, yeah, yeah. What's the common denominator
5:24
pub? Yeah, yeah, I would say so.
5:27
Cider. Cider.
5:29
Cider. Yeah, you've got, I suppose
5:30
you've got a drink. Cider.
5:32
Down there, Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do they allow Guinness?
5:35
Yeah, they do. Yeah.
5:36
Do you. But down there there's there's a
5:39
quite a famous cider called Rattler, which given my
5:43
automotive background is actually brewed by the Austin
5:47
Healy family and it's very, very nice side on draft.
5:51
So we normally partake in a couple.
5:54
Gosh, there's lots of connections coming out here,
5:56
isn't it? Aren't there?
5:56
Yeah, yeah. So, so when you do go dunking,
5:59
you do go on your own or or with Kay or with a a group or.
6:04
No, we just go with Kay. We don't do it in in a group.
6:07
Sometimes with the kids, but no, it's always with Kay.
6:09
I don't do. There is a a very prolific meet
6:15
in cricket, the Woolly Hatters meet everybody.
6:18
Oh, of course we've not. We've not gone down there and
6:20
taken part in that. Right, right.
6:22
But some of our friends do Gilly, you know, she, she dunks
6:26
with them. Yeah, yeah.
6:27
And they're, they're sort of more or less females, aren't
6:31
they? The Woolly Hatters.
6:32
As far as I'm aware. Yeah, yeah.
6:34
So you'll have to come to come to Abersock.
6:37
You'll fear there's a there's a bit more testosterone around.
6:39
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Mind you it's a bit aged
6:42
testosterone of course be honest if I have anything to do.
6:45
Right. This is much testosterone.
6:46
When you getting out it's a cold.
6:49
No, probably. Probably not.
6:51
No, we, we all everything hidden discreetly, Yes, Yeah, as you
6:55
would imagine. So the, the, the great thing
6:58
about this particular site is that as you say, there's 240 to
7:03
probably almost 250, even 70° visibility.
7:08
Just describe to to our listener exactly what we're looking at,
7:13
if you will. Well, I think it is one of the
7:16
most stunning parts of Wales, probably one of the most
7:20
stunning parts of the UK. So being right on the point
7:23
here, we can see the mountains of the rivals.
7:26
We can see like Griffin down down to the right here.
7:30
We can see Anglesey and Holyhead.
7:34
And on a clear evening, because we're fairly high up, you can
7:39
see the mountains in Whitlow from here.
7:42
Wow. Yeah.
7:43
Which is 70 miles away. Goodness, goodness.
7:46
So do you often see many boats that are are making voyage over
7:50
there, making passage over to? No, most.
7:54
Most of the vessels we see are either coming down from
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Carnarvon. The larger vessels either coming
7:58
down from Carnarvon or around from Pythaglio Absok, the the
8:04
real large bulk carriers come only come within about 20 miles
8:11
of us. And we can see them on the
8:14
tracking system that we have here.
8:16
And if they're very large ones, you can see them just on the
8:19
horizon. But the the the main people we
8:23
get around here are in, in, in winter it's the fisherman,
8:28
commercial fishermen and in summer it's obviously fishermen
8:31
plus all the tourists and leisure, leisure boats.
8:35
OK, right. Before we actually sort of get
8:38
into the constitution of the community that you look after,
8:42
I'm going to try, so just jump in, I'm going to try and
8:45
describe what, what, where this particular building.
8:49
So it is, it literally is, is a small square building.
8:52
It's probably about 8 feet by 10 feet.
8:57
It's we're on a second level. So, so and we're high up on the
9:01
edge of the Cliff. So we we obviously clearly
9:05
figuratively and literally look down on everybody in the room
9:08
that we're we're here, we've got loads and loads of of Wi-Fi and
9:14
presumably short range radio. We've got a big chart, a big
9:20
table with a chart on. And is that the whole of your
9:24
your visibility is this? Yeah.
9:27
Well, more than. So the chart that you're looking
9:30
at, you'll see that there are, there are lines around it
9:33
radiating from this particular watchtower.
9:37
And they designate how many nautical miles a particular
9:44
vessel may be that we have to estimate roughly where a vessel
9:47
is if we see one out there in trouble.
9:49
But there are rings on the map that, that show us roughly where
9:53
they may be. And the, the one at the top one,
9:57
there's a, there's one called horizon at 10.8 nautical miles.
10:01
And that is obviously what it sounds.
10:04
It is where we can see. If we saw a small vessel in the
10:09
water at 10.8 miles, we'd see them.
10:12
Beyond that, at 11 miles, we probably wouldn't see them
10:15
because it's the curved earth effect.
10:18
Of course, right. So.
10:19
That's that's that's as much of the horizon as we can see.
10:22
It's about 10.8 miles from here. Right, which is a long way for a
10:26
small vessel, especially to be out there.
10:28
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
10:29
But if it's a large yacht, we will see them at 15 miles maybe
10:33
if it, you know, if it's a big enough yacht.
10:34
Yeah, because he's got obviously they've got the the of his mast.
10:38
So okay, so just to continue our background.
10:44
So we've got windows all the way around, literally all the way
10:47
around bar one wall. And that wall is effectively
10:51
land facing, land facing over the golf course.
10:54
So if you're a golfer, if you've ever played Nevin, would you?
10:59
You'd see the Watchtower wouldn't?
11:00
You yes they will tee off right at the side of it.
11:06
I see them as well. Do you?
11:09
Do you often? Sort of.
11:11
Because I know you're a golfer. Think lousy shot, mate.
11:14
I could have done better. I often say to them, you know,
11:17
on on this hole, it's nearest the green, not nearest the pen.
11:21
Just try and hit the green. It's just, it's a magnificent
11:24
hole, but it's difficult to play.
11:26
Yeah, it seems as though it rolls away pretty.
11:28
Quick and it's always windy here so it's difficult to control if
11:31
it's high winds. Right.
11:33
So do you. OK, this is, this is where it
11:37
all happens. This is what it looks like.
11:40
As I say, you've got masses and masses of kitten here, which is,
11:43
which is really impressive. And for the uninitiated like me,
11:50
I'm glad to say I can see there is an alphabet on the wall which
11:54
has got the the proper designation.
11:56
So the is this the phonetic, yeah, ABCD, etcetera.
12:01
So yeah, there's there's no excuse to to get it wrong, I
12:05
guess. OK, so we've got we're out on a
12:10
peninsula. We're miles away or appeals
12:12
miles away from from anywhere, although we're we're actually
12:16
not We're we're we're great visibility down onto the sea and
12:21
what happens on a shift on at coast watch.
12:25
OK, what? Take me from the time that you
12:27
unlock the door? So we are eyes along the coast.
12:32
That's the best 3 words I can I can describe what we do.
12:38
We are in effect what the Coast Guard used to do.
12:41
There used to be 300 Coast Guard stations around the country.
12:45
The last ones closed in 1994, of which this was one of them.
12:50
Why is that? Sorry to interrupt because the
12:53
government at the time decided that they with the technology
12:58
there was that they get away with just running the Coast
13:02
Guard from 10 stations around the around the country.
13:06
A lot of the stations were then just closed and there was one
13:12
particular station on the South Coast, Bass Point, where there
13:18
was a tragedy with a fishing vessel and it was soon after the
13:27
Coast Guard closed that particular station.
13:30
So the. All eyes were all eyes were
13:33
pointed to the government. Absolutely.
13:35
So the the Coast Guard volunteers, they decided to form
13:42
their own Coast Watch station there and that was the very
13:47
first one that was formed. And now there are 61 around the
13:52
country. Wow.
13:53
All volunteers all. Volunteers.
13:55
There isn't a a single paid member in the Coast Watch.
13:58
We all have to raise our own funds.
14:00
Each station raises their own funds and we don't get any
14:04
support from from anywhere else other than the generosity of the
14:07
public. So the the the time and the
14:11
effort and the energy that people put in, it's all about
14:15
believing they want to keep people.
14:17
Safe it is the, the common denominator is people who want
14:20
to do something good and want to put something back into the
14:23
community. And that's, that's admirable.
14:27
You know, we're always looking for volunteers.
14:30
So if anybody is listening to this and and feels that they
14:33
might be interested in doing it, then we would welcome you to
14:37
come and come down to the watchtower, bang on the door,
14:40
doesn't matter which who, who's on watch.
14:42
They will take you upstairs, show you around and and tell you
14:45
what we do. And if we go even deeper into
14:48
that, that you could actually it's the same approach whichever
14:52
watchtower you have them to go to of all of the 61.
14:56
Wherever you go. OK, so it answered to your
14:58
earlier question then we, we, we go on watch.
15:02
We have a 5 hour shift and in that five hours we can't sit
15:06
here reading or watching tennis. We are constantly watching what
15:11
is going out in the sea there. Now in winter months that can be
15:16
very quiet. In summer months it can be
15:19
incredibly busy because we we, we spot, we plot what we see.
15:25
If there's a problem that we see where somebody's get in trouble,
15:28
we report it and respond and get onto the Coast Guard and they
15:33
decide whether they've launched or the RNLI or the police or
15:36
whichever search and rescue service might need to happen.
15:40
So we're constantly looking for people that we think might be
15:45
vulnerable. So we have a, a process by which
15:49
we kind of categorise, OK, so if you've got a, a vessel out there
15:54
that's, you know, sailing nicely, they've all got life
15:58
jackets on and they're just enjoying themselves, you know,
16:02
then we still note where they are.
16:05
So we note first position and then we keep an eye on them.
16:08
But if we see another vessel out there, perhaps a speedboat with
16:12
lots of kids in and no life jackets and overcrowded, and
16:16
that becomes a priority for us to watch as with paddle board,
16:21
as if we feel they're getting in trouble.
16:22
Or kayakers. Because one of the big things
16:26
that, you know, if I could talk to everybody that came down onto
16:29
the front here to do some water sports, I'd say make sure you
16:33
know what the wind's doing. Make sure you know what the
16:35
tide's doing. Make sure you've got a phone
16:37
with you. And it's remarkable the number
16:39
of times that that doesn't happen, sadly.
16:41
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And but looking out of this
16:45
windows now, I would think if you were in a kayak, stroke
16:48
canoe and or a paddle board, it's it's pretty bleak.
16:53
Yes, it is yeah. So if you're around here on one
16:56
of those craft, then you're taking a bit of a chance anyway.
17:01
It's, yeah, very exposed. We had an incident recently
17:05
about 5-6 weeks ago of a kayaker that came out of Porthy Incline
17:12
and the the watch keeper was keeping a very close eye on him.
17:16
There wasn't much much activity at the time, but it was quite
17:19
strong winds and the tide was going out and the wind was
17:24
offshore. And as he watched the kayak, he
17:28
could see that he was he was paddling to try and get in and
17:32
he was very slowly continuing to come out.
17:34
So immediately he would get concerned about that.
17:37
He documents it, documents exactly where he is, rings the
17:41
Coast Guard and said we think this man's in trouble.
17:44
The Coast Guard then decide, they make the decision.
17:47
We don't make the decision. They they even decision to
17:49
launch if they do and they did launch from here, the Coast
17:53
Guard, then they do not let go of that issue until it's fully
18:01
resolved, whatever it is so. And that, presumably, is the man
18:05
back on land. Back and safe on land.
18:08
So that's whether it's a child, whether it's a dog, whether it's
18:11
a kayaker, it doesn't matter what it is.
18:13
The Coast Guard are exceptional at managing an incident from
18:18
start to finish. OK, absolutely incredible.
18:20
So the Coast Guard will, they will be the people that would
18:23
call in the helicopter or the RNL, the lifeboat, RNLI or, or
18:30
as you say, the ambulance services, the yeah, emergency
18:33
services, the. The Coast Guard are the glue to
18:37
all the marine search and rescue.
18:40
You must make their job a lot easier because if you the 61 of
18:45
you around the country weren't there, they would be well
18:49
stretched, wouldn't they? I mean, they're bearing in mind
18:52
we're all volunteers and you know, we're only open 5 hours a
18:56
day. Some of the stations on the
18:58
South Coast have as many as 90 volunteers, so they will open
19:01
from 9:00 in the morning till 6:00 at night.
19:05
And over the course of a year, there are thousands of incidents
19:08
where the NCIS instigated that that emergency rescue.
19:15
And though it's an obvious thing to ask, but I'll ask it anyway.
19:18
So you really can only offer an effective service in the hours
19:23
of the day of daylight. Yeah, absolutely.
19:26
So what happens at night? Nothing we can do that.
19:31
It relies purely on either somebody not getting back at the
19:36
time they should do so whoever was expecting them will ring the
19:40
Coast Guard or the police, or if it's if it's a yacht, they will
19:45
ring the Coast Guard themselves. Yes, yachts generally have got
19:49
all the right equipment. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
19:51
OK. And is that the same throughout
19:53
all the stations everywhere? You you only operate through
19:57
hours and hours daylight. There are, there is there is a
20:01
few projects around at the moment, one that I'm involved
20:04
with it, which is putting a remote camera on Black Rock
20:10
Sands, because round here there are two main areas where people
20:15
get into trouble regularly. One is round in the sound at
20:20
Barzee. OK, they don't.
20:21
There aren't many of those, but when they happen, they're more
20:24
serious. Yeah.
20:25
Is that because of the tides? Just for the our listener who
20:27
doesn't understand the sound. Water there, if it's well, even
20:30
on a calm day, the water seems like it's almost boiling when
20:34
you go in the Sound, because of course the water's pushing round
20:37
the island and meeting around the back of the island.
20:40
That's what causes it, yeah. And Barzee itself, which is a
20:44
small island about what, half a mile off off the mainland that
20:48
is actually creating a funnel effect, presumably.
20:51
It is exactly so. It's similar to Menai Straits.
20:54
OK, similar concept. To Menai, water rushes round
20:57
Anglesey and and comes into the middle and you get that boiling
21:00
effect and and particularly at at high, high and low tides.
21:05
Right, right. And yeah, because, but I have
21:08
heard that Barnsley, if you're on a boat, you can actually
21:11
almost stand still. Yes.
21:13
Yeah, because the sound runs that quickly.
21:15
Yeah. I mean, we went round it, we had
21:18
about years ago, we went out on a flat calm Bay round round
21:22
Barty and it's still quite, quite, quite a challenge going
21:26
around there. Is it really?
21:27
Yeah. It's a little bit nerve
21:28
wracking, yeah. So the, there's, there's,
21:31
there's obviously there's one or two real sort of lessons for,
21:34
for people to learn. And that is, first of all, I
21:37
guess you've got to have a craft that you can keep in contact
21:40
with, with somebody else with I your mobile phone.
21:45
Make sure that you're not, you're not trying, especially on
21:47
a small craft that the wind isn't pushing you out into the
21:50
ocean. And the, the, the fact that you
21:54
understand where the tide, what's happening with the water.
21:57
Yeah, yeah. And yeah.
21:59
Anything else that you would suggest?
22:01
Weather. Weather, of course.
22:03
Of course, tide, I mean, weather's obviously part of part
22:06
of which way the wind's going. But weather, weather generally,
22:09
you know, if if you know there's a squaw coming, don't go out,
22:12
no. And that and we have had
22:15
incidents that we've had here where that has been the case.
22:17
So just just to give you a picture of, of some of them.
22:21
So we had a rescue about 18 months ago, which was two people
22:25
on a jet ski similar situation. The tide was going out, the wind
22:31
was against. Now obviously jet skis are quite
22:33
powerful, but they're not very powerful when you fall off them.
22:37
And these two individuals fell off in rough seas.
22:41
The jet ski carried on and they were both in trouble.
22:46
And again, fortunately we were on, we were on watch.
22:48
It was during our hours and one of the this was about October,
22:53
November time. So it's.
22:54
Cold gosh the waters, Yeah. One of them managed to climb
22:58
onto some rocks near where the station is here and the other
23:02
person was was left in in the sea.
23:05
So we ran the Coast Guard, they launched the lifeboat from here.
23:08
They rescued both of them. But it turned out once they got
23:12
them in and rescued, that one of them was an epileptic.
23:15
OK. Could have been, could have been
23:17
quite serious because they will have started to panic by the
23:20
time yeah, yeah, they were rescued.
23:22
And body temperature going down, as we, as we dunkers know in
23:25
November, you can, you're lucky if you've got 12 degrees, 10 or
23:30
12° in the water. Yeah, yeah.
23:33
And do you, do you, do you get many?
23:36
And I don't want to sort of over dramatise it, but do you get
23:39
many incidents or is it more watching and and just just be so
23:46
could OK I'm I'm out in a boat. I realise I'm in in trouble.
23:51
I have got a phone with me. Would I ring the RNLI?
23:56
Would I ring 999? Would I ring you and if so,
24:00
9999? Always 999, OK, because although
24:03
we have direct dialogue with the Coast Guard on on a regular
24:08
basis through the day, if there's an incident, we ring 999
24:12
because it goes through as a priority call.
24:14
Right. If it's just the phone ringing
24:16
that we normally ring, they won't necessarily pick it up if
24:18
they've got an incident going on somewhere.
24:20
SO999 always. And as far as your
24:24
communications go, as I mentioned very briefly, you seem
24:28
to have a lot of kit here so you can talk to about and talk to
24:33
the emergency services at the same time and just you're like
24:37
the go between at that point. So just to kind of give you a
24:40
quick tour of what we've got in here, we have, we have two
24:43
marine radios. 1 is dedicated to our own channel because the NCI
24:49
has its own channel 65, which anybody can call up for radio
24:53
checks, weather checks or whatever they want to.
24:56
But that Channel, that particular radio set also
25:00
listens to channel 16, which is the emergency channel.
25:03
So anybody who's in trouble always, always communicate on
25:07
channel 16. All the other channels are just
25:11
for use when the Coast Guard might have an interaction with
25:17
somebody and it might be somebody just wanting a little
25:20
bit of information and they'll they'll tell them move to
25:22
channel 18 or move to channel 21.
25:25
Or oh, they'll they'll give them instructions.
25:27
Instructions, yeah, to keep channel 16 presumably clear for
25:31
if somebody else. Yeah, because you do
25:33
occasionally get people who are not familiar with having a VHF
25:37
radio having a chat about where the best mackerel fishing is or
25:41
where they should, where they should more up, you know, isn't.
25:44
That why you use the radio. The other radio is a standard
25:50
marine radio that scans all channels.
25:55
The only thing that makes that different from a standard marine
25:58
radio is it also listens to channel 00, which is the search
26:03
and rescue channel. OK, OK.
26:05
So. Are you able to transmit on 00?
26:10
We are, but we don't. No, but we as general public.
26:14
Wouldn't, No. Absolutely not.
26:15
We have to use 16. Absolutely not 16.
26:17
OK. It's and then hopefully this
26:20
this this podcast will will give a few messages and reminders to
26:24
people. I'm sure I'm sure the majority
26:27
of our our listeners will be well schooled and well au fait
26:31
with this, but it's a nudge sometimes is a is a nice idea.
26:35
It's it's just the with the advent of affordable blow up
26:41
paddle boards as well that can be bought from sports goods, but
26:46
also supermarkets. They are, they are quite a
26:50
problem. So you know, we'll get several
26:52
incidents a year where somebody will be getting blown out to sea
26:55
on them usually usually kids, but blown out to sea without any
27:02
life jacket on, probably sometimes without a wet suit,
27:06
but certainly generally without a radio.
27:09
And then it becomes a parent panicking seeing them or
27:12
something, somebody that we will see getting into trouble.
27:15
So it's just having a bit of common sense before you get out
27:18
on the water, having a little checklist that says, you know,
27:21
I've thought this through, I know what the weather's doing
27:24
and I'm going to, I'm going to play safe.
27:26
And on this part of the world, because you've got eyes on 10
27:30
miles and more through 200 and 42170°, you're, you're a great,
27:38
you're a great support for them, aren't you?
27:40
You know, that's the point. If they are anywhere in this Bay
27:44
or all the way around to the other side of Pastile or or the
27:49
Rivals, you've just got your eyes on this all the time.
27:52
Yeah, yeah, we've got, we've got other equipment we've got, we've
27:56
got several optics in here the the large binoculars there.
28:00
We'll we'll see out past pistol and very clearly we could pick
28:04
up an upturned yacht in outside a pistol with those.
28:10
And then we have something called, it's called a Polaris,
28:13
but basically, if you think of it, it's a large compass about
28:19
the size of a dinner plate. And on there is mounted a
28:27
telescope and it's got a little pointer on it.
28:30
So if we see something out in trouble, somebody out on the
28:33
water, we can tell within exactly how many degrees away
28:38
from the station that they are. And that's really important for
28:41
us because at that point, if we know they're in trouble, we can
28:44
ring the Coast Guard and say they are 270° from the station.
28:48
They're roughly 5 miles out now. It doesn't matter if we get the
28:52
five miles out wrong. What matters is that we've said
28:54
it's 270° from the station. Yeah, they're on the rugby.
28:57
Way I can know that is from that.
28:59
OK, OK. And then the last bit of
29:02
equipment that we do have is we have a big ray marine chart
29:08
plotter. And basically what that is for
29:11
listeners, it is a, a screen that displays all the sea area
29:16
that we've got in here. And then if there's a larger
29:19
vessel on there that has an AIS on it, which is automatic
29:25
information system, you can we can tell exactly where they are
29:29
to within a few meters and exactly what their course is.
29:33
And in some cases, it'll tell us where they're heading.
29:37
So that's. It's very impressive.
29:38
That's very important. Yeah, yeah.
29:40
And those those Ray marine type kits I think I've seen on actual
29:44
boats as well, don't they that? Is a boat piece kit.
29:47
Is it really? Yeah, Yeah, it is.
29:49
So, yeah, it's one. One way or another, you've got
29:53
it. Do you think I, I'm just
29:54
wondering whether the listener's going to notice and whether
29:58
you're going to notice if I half inch these binoculars because
30:01
the Andy lent me a pair of binoculars when they first came
30:04
in and they were just magnificent.
30:07
So yeah, yeah, they're. Very good binoculars.
30:10
Yeah, you do. You do.
30:11
So I'm just going to, I'm going to just sidetrack a little bit.
30:14
Thank you. We've got a real handle on what
30:17
you do as far as you as a dunker goes.
30:20
Are you happy to to to sort of make this part of your life?
30:27
So you've, you're dunking, you've got your cars, you've
30:31
got, oh, well, you've, you've got lots and lots of different
30:35
distractions. Yeah.
30:36
Do you ever feel that your time is sort of so precious that you
30:42
can think, oh, well, I won't go up to Coast Watch because
30:44
somebody else will do it because it's all volunteers.
30:47
And I'll, I'll sort of play with my car or play a game of golf.
30:50
No, I can't do that. I would be mortified if if there
30:55
was some, some incident that to happen and I wasn't on hand to
31:00
resolve that. So you, you, you can't do that.
31:04
You have to when you commit to do it apart from illness or
31:10
people who have some kind of issue that's come up that they
31:12
don't, they don't know, didn't know that would happen.
31:17
The we are expected to come and watch.
31:19
If we say we're going to come and watch.
31:21
Brilliant. So, yeah, yeah.
31:22
That's yeah, you, you, you've got to stick by the commitment
31:25
you make. Yeah, it's, it's for a, for a
31:28
watch keeper, it's not a huge commitment.
31:30
You're talking about anywhere between 2:00 and 4:00 watches a
31:34
month. You know, we have one person
31:37
that who's who's not, not travels quite a way to get here,
31:41
but he has a, a home down here, holiday home down here and he
31:45
only does one watch a month at the moment.
31:48
He'd like to do more and that's acceptable.
31:50
That's perfectly acceptable. All all we ask is that people
31:53
will do an amount of watch keeping that that works for
31:58
them. It's it's a two way thing, you
32:01
know. So, yeah, clearly, clearly.
32:03
A decent watch keeper. 3-4 watches a month be absolutely
32:07
fine. And with that, with the team
32:09
I've got, I can generally fill, fill every day.
32:12
You know, we're not always able to do that because we haven't,
32:15
We're only a team of 21 watch keepers.
32:18
And of that, some, some people prefer to do it with somebody
32:22
else. And there are some married
32:25
couples who prefer to prefer, prefer to do it together.
32:28
So you're only talking about being able to cover about 14
32:32
watches because you've got, so it's, it can be quite
32:35
challenging. We need more watch keepers.
32:39
We need, you know, some some, dare I say when I say younger
32:44
watch keepers, we're all of an age.
32:45
So if we've got people who are taking early retirement, want to
32:48
do something, don't want to give up working yet, this is an
32:51
ideal. It's just fabulous.
32:54
It's the views are spectacular. It's peaceful, can get a bit
32:58
hairy in summer, but you know that's.
33:01
That goes to the territory that goes and I think that, you know,
33:05
when sitting here, it's it's so professional, so reassuring that
33:10
you've just got all the kit here and you've obviously you must
33:14
have a lot of training to do that, that you goes into it.
33:17
And and I suppose refresh of course is like anything like
33:20
this. You just take refreshers all the
33:22
time. The training isn't that
33:24
difficult Mark you're talking about.
33:26
Probably 10 to 12 watches will take you from applying to become
33:31
a watch keeper to being signed off.
33:33
It's not OK, it's not that hard. It's just a case of getting used
33:37
to that, what the processes are and the routines are because 90%
33:42
of this job is common sense. It's looking and seeing and
33:46
making a judgement if if you think somebody's getting into
33:49
trouble. So it's not difficult for people
33:53
to to get into it and if they've got a passion to do something
33:57
else there. You know, we have a team of
34:00
officers who do stuff. You know, we have a training
34:02
officer, we have a treasurer, we have a secretary, we have
34:07
somebody who's a roster, somebody who's PR, somebody
34:09
who's social media. So there's always stuff to be
34:13
done and I'm always looking for help.
34:16
Yeah, yeah, there's lots of disciplines that underpin the
34:20
the operation, the smooth operation of it, absolutely.
34:22
And and you know, I mean, it would be who knows some of the
34:26
dunkers because the dunkers are generally we've got age against
34:31
us, but we've got time on our hands.
34:33
So, you know, maybe some of the dunkers who have just confined
34:38
234 hours a week a month rather is that'll make a big
34:43
impression. Yes you would.
34:44
Yeah, it would. We we cope close in, in some
34:47
months we're close to getting to the stage where I could do a
34:49
dual shift where I could maybe open from 9:00 in the morning
34:53
till 6:00 at night. And during the summer, summer
34:56
months, particularly bank holidays and things like that,
34:59
I'd like to do that. Yeah, we're sure we're only
35:01
doing 5 hour shifts, but we overlap for half an hour and
35:04
then we're covering from, you know, 9 till six.
35:07
Yeah, that would be my ideal. Well, let, let's, let's keep
35:10
that in, in mind because I think The thing is that we just sort
35:15
of touch back onto Duncan and there's a, on our dunkers
35:19
podcast. We, I've got a couple of
35:20
traditions. 1 is that I'm going to ask you a question that
35:23
somebody else has left for you because, and I'm not going to
35:26
tell you who and I'll get to that.
35:29
But I, I think my own question, the question that I always ask
35:33
anybody, because this is sort of it's just grown out of the
35:37
podcast, is if there was anybody you could go and dunk with and
35:42
dunk anywhere and anywhere at all, who would it be and where
35:46
would it be? It might sound a bit trite to
35:57
say this, but my mother used to dunk at the end of Llanbedrog
36:03
Beach towards Bethelly. She used to drive down and park
36:07
up down there and she used she, she was dunked for years in
36:12
summer. I never went with her.
36:15
Didn't you? No SO.
36:17
That's nice. Yeah, that's with my mum.
36:19
That's great, That's great. And the, the, the question I'm
36:23
going to ask you is what would you, is there something over the
36:29
next 6 or 12 months that you're, you've promised yourself that
36:34
you'll do and, and what do you think it is?
36:42
I would like to try and just pull back a bit from the work
36:49
I'm doing at the moment. So having retired about four
36:54
years ago and and been been kind of here for about 3 1/2 years
36:58
now, I'd just like to get a bit more of time for, for me and for
37:03
us in. So, so that means getting a bit
37:06
more help. We're at the moment looking at
37:09
succession plans and things for the for the station, for all the
37:12
officers that are involved. So getting a bit more structure
37:16
around who does what around the station.
37:19
That's, that's great. And let's let's hope that if, if
37:22
there is a dunker out there that's got a mind, then let's
37:26
encourage them to to get in contact with you.
37:29
Yeah, well, thank you very much indeed, Andy.
37:31
Honestly, real pleasure. It's a it's a whole new space
37:36
that I knew a bit about but didn't understand it anywhere
37:39
near as as professionally as it is.
37:42
And the 61 of these stations doing vital work around the
37:46
country. And more power to you, I.
37:48
Look forward to your application.
37:51
Well, thank you again, and I'll sign off by saying may the
37:56
dunker's spirit go with you. Thank you.
37:58
Thanks, Mark. Thanks.