What do a donation of £5250; a Mayday and a Pan-Pan have in common?
Receiving donations and responding to emergencies at sea are all in a day’s work for lifeboat crew.
On the evening of Thursday 12 June Northam Town Council held their annual ceremonial ‘handing over’ of the office of Mayor. The retiring Mayor sums up their year in office and then hands over a cheque raised through the Mayor’s Charity and a token of thanks to their cadet, before handing over the chains of office to the new Mayor. As a member of the operations team herself, this year the outgoing Mayor’s charity was Appledore RNLI, the cheque was for approximately £5250 and the Coxswain was present to gratefully receive it. The Mayor’s cadet was the daughter of the new Mechanic, so he was also present. More or less the minute this part of the proceedings had been completed, their pagers went off and both Coxswain and Mechanic run out of the proceedings to a round of applause, thus proving crew get paged to emergencies, anywhere and at any time.
At 7:38 pm a tasking request was received from Falmouth Coastguard for the crew to respond to a ‘Mayday’ from a vessel in the Torridge estuary off Instow. The volunteer crew were immediately paged and the inshore lifeboat was launched minutes after. A Royal Marine landing craft, on the water at the time, had ‘eyes on’ the casualty vessel and the lifeboat was quickly on the scene and able to ascertain the situation.
The sixteen year old sailor aboard the casualty vessel had called “Mayday” when his boat had suffered engine failure and despite having dropped his anchor, was adrift in the ebbing tide. Given the inexperience of the sailor, his lack of a life jacket and his use of an inflatable kayak as a tender, it was decided by the crew to tow the vessel to its moorings and then take the casualty safely ashore as there were concerns about the use of the inflatable in the strengthening easterly wind and ebbing tide.
Not long after the alongside tow had commenced, at 8.13 pm, Falmouth Coastguard then requested the inshore lifeboat respond to a 'Pan-Pan' from another vessel in the estuary, also with engine failure. A Mayday call is used when there is immediate and serious danger to life. A Pan-Pan call is used when the situation is urgent but not life-threatening. The first casualty vessel was therefore safely towed to its moorings with the young sailor now wearing a RNLI lifejacket, and it was agreed that he would wait safely on his yacht until the lifeboat returned from its 'Pan-Pan’ tasking.
The ‘Pan-Pan’ concerned a 25ft fishing vessel that had broken down east of the inner pulley with three people on board. There was a danger of it becoming a risk to navigation and given the strong currents and ebbing tide, the Coastguard requested the lifeboat to tow the casualty vessel to its moorings off Instow. The lifeboat was ‘on scene’ at 8:28 pm and the vessel was under tow five minutes later. This fishing boat was safely moored off Instow just after 9.00 pm and its crew kindly agreed to ferry the young sailor from the ‘Mayday’ shout ashore in their tender. However the tender outboard then also suffered engine failure so the use of oars was required!
When all was confirmed well, the lifeboat crew returned to station.
Having ascertained both the Mayday and the Pan-Pan were inshore lifeboat shouts, and that they were not required at the station, the all-weather coxswain and mechanic returned to the Town Council event just in time for the buffet.
This brings the number of emergency shouts for Appledore RNLI in 2025 to 37, so far a very busy year.
Key facts about the RNLI
The RNLI is the charity that saves lives at sea. Its volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland coasts. The RNLI operates 238 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland and more than 240 lifeguard units on beaches around the UK and Channel Islands. The RNLI is independent of Coastguard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 146,700 lives.
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Contacting the RNLI - public enquiries
Members of the public may contact the RNLI on 0300 300 9990 (UK) or 1800 991802 (Ireland) or by email.