Heroes on the High Street

Hunstanton Lifeboat Station crew and supporters were fundraising in Hunstanton on Saturday (28th August).

At the Spinney in the town centre, Lifeboat Operations Manager Rigil Kent said: “We’re very pleased to see the public out putting money in our buckets; keeping everything in seaworthy condition takes a lot of funds and this year we’ve had a number of repairs and renewals to contend with.

“Currently we have a temporary tractor on station while ours is being repaired, and our hovercraft has just come back after its engine problems have been fixed.

“Also, the lifeboat developed an oil leak and had to have an engine change – this too is now back on station so we are fully operational.

“It’s great that there is a resilience plan in place to handle these challenges.”

Rigil was pleased to report that the Station had developed good relations with the Scolt Head Island Warden, National Trust, Coastwatch and the Community Assistance Team and the safety advice these organisations have been offering to beach users, and the respect the water campaign, had resulted in fewer people needing to be rescued from the island. “It’s been much better this year”, he said, “despite the rise in the staycationers.”

Photo ©T&A

In full kit, crew member Roger Smith was collecting at Tesco, supported by his nephew William Nicol and niece Lily Nicol.

So when someone asks: “What do the crew do when they are not doing their day job or out on a shout?”

You can answer: “Raising awareness and collecting funds for the RNLI.”