Episode 06- Lee Gallacher Part 2

In this episode of Oceans Unplugged, the roles are reversed as host Lee Gallacher takes the guest seat to share his extensive experience and career at sea. Drawing on years of service as a sailor, volunteer lifeboat crew member, harbour authority patrol coxswain, pilot launch coxswain, and coast guard officer, Lee provides a unique insight into the realities of working in the maritime world.

Topics covered in this episode include:

• The responsibilities and challenges of serving as a volunteer lifeboat crew member
• Emergency callouts and real-life rescue operations at sea
• The demands, risks, and realities of search and rescue work
• The high-risk environment of pilot transfers to large commercial vessels
• The critical role of harbour patrol operations and maritime safety
• Mental resilience and decision-making under pressure
• Career pathways and opportunities within the maritime sector
• First-hand accounts of near misses, major incidents, and unforgettable experiences on the water

Whether you have an interest in maritime operations, rescue services, seafaring careers, or the experiences of those who work in demanding environments at sea, this episode offers valuable insight into a world few people ever see firsthand.

A huge thank you to our core sponsor YB Tracking. None of this would be possible without your help and the service you provide to thousands of people every day.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Ocean Duncan, I'm the other formal professional fighter, mariner, harbour authority, patrol officer, postcard officer, and watchbooker. In each episode, I'll be sitting down one-to-one with the people who approach beyond the horizon. Ocean Racers, Explorers, Rowers, and the leaders behind the world's most demanding expeditions. We'll expand on the guest as we get into it. Oceans Unplugged is currently supported by YB Tracking, the global leader in race and expedition tracking technology, helping bring the world's toughest adventures to life in real time. This is our story, unfiltered and in-depth.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Welcome back to episode six of Oceans Unplugged, and you have got me back here for another episode because we're going to dive into part two of your host, Lee.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

Thanks for actually interviewing me, mate. It's uh good to sort of delve into my background. That's alright. Yeah, it's alright. It's almost like being sat on a psychiatrist chair here sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

I know. We've gone for a nice little cozy couch set up, so me and Lee are nice close to each other, so we can be close for the conversation. So it's all good.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

I wasn't quite sure whether I had to lie down. Take the chair.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Yeah, and how do you feel about that? So I want to dive into a few things, but before we do, uh, just to let the listeners know, obviously, we're going to go talk through your time as harbour security or harbour master or lifeguarding. Not lifeguarding, I said this a minute ago.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Lifeboating. Uh so lifeboat crew, lifeboat harbour authority. So that's pilot launch coxswain and harbour master patrol coxswain. Um, and also coast guarding. Yeah, so we can get into all of that sort of rescue at sea.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Insane. You've got to obviously teach me all about it, seeing as I can't even line up what you did. So before we do that though, I just want to say a super, super quick thank you to YB Tracking for, of course, sponsoring and making sure that these episodes come straight to you in your ears from whatever your favourite stream platform is. And then the second thing I want to do is man, the people you've had on this show so far.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Yeah, uh, quite a few people have said, go, how are you gonna top that? How are you gonna top D Cafari? How are you gonna top Pip? Uh, how are you gonna top Ella Hibbert? It's like there's been some great guests, and but we have got some more great guests coming.

SPEAKER_00 2:23

I'm really looking forward to that, man. Like, have you got can we can we set a little inkling into who's coming through, or are we not allowed to talk about it yet?

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Well, we've already said we've got Liz Wardley, Ocean Rower and Ocean Racer, she's gonna be on. We've uh also got Oliver here, uh, who has just launched his brand new uh Amoka 60 under the new branding of Bossard. Uh so yeah, we're gonna be chatting to him, but there's quite a few more to come as well.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Looking forward to it, looking forward to it. So, from the guests that we've just had, I think some of the stories that they've talked about are fantastic. We've got to bring them on for parts twos, parts threes as they continue with their adventures. What is one of the kind of favorite moments you've got from a guest so far?

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Well, there were two real highlights for me. Um, I mean, I've always had my career at sea, sailing, harbour authority, whatever. Um, and one of the things I've learned through this this process of doing a podcast is when you're chatting to people about sort of their background and their um experiences, it's still remembering that there's an individual behind it. So, like with Dee Cavari, we were talking about sort of the famous project, her recent record, and then obviously the connection because she's learning how to ride a motorbike, and it was seeing that sort of in fact, it was Debs that spotted it, it was just seeing her light up and change of talking about herself personally and finding that genuine interest in someone else. And the same with Pip Hare, where we were talking to her, that I mean, Pip just reminds me so much of Ellen MacArthur in that sheer focus of what she wants, where she wants to go, um, literally almost like living in the container kind of atmosphere. Um, and she is so focused on the next Von Day Globe, trying to find the funding. Um, and I'm trying to help her put in contact with different people, and uh, you, the viewer, can help as well if anyone's looking for sponsorship. Pip hair. But also talking to um Ella, there was bits in her sort of challenge last year, even though I was her designated person ashore, her first responder, there were still the little nuggets that even I didn't know had happened. Uh, and to sort of hear those little background stories, it was fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

I think that's what I like about this podcast so much, is that although you've got kind of an overarching theme of the guests who come on and talk, everybody's got such unique stories. Like, and two people could have done the same event, but because they're on two different vessels, like the stories are different because just everything is so niche and so nuanced to what you do in your experience. I I really liked actually Ella's point of getting stuck in the ice and uh having to give you a bell 20 minutes later, something like that.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

Yeah, oh, when she's ground, yeah, and I'd slept through the first couple of calls, and Ella has blessed. We've spoken about it so many times, and she has forgiven me, but it's still kind of a little joke between us of like you better answer the phone next time. So uh, yeah, we've kind of worked around, but it's it's all the thing about learning um how can you overcome those challenges. Obviously, for me with my work with YB, I'm still on call, I'm still on duty, and to when I'm not on call or on duty out of hours, I need to put my phone on mute, and of course, I can't if I've got two different projects. So we've worked a workaround with that, um, and that is now two separate phones, yeah. So it it just kind of the learning curve, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

So is that what it was like? It segues quite nicely. Is that what it was like working within the lifeboats? Or was there a kind of switch off at the door?

SPEAKER_01 6:14

So, with with the lifeboats, I volunteered because all lifeboat crew are volunteers all across the UK. Um, the difference being that 76% of lifeboat stations around the UK are what everyone knows, the R and L I, the Royal National Lifeboat Institute. 24% of the lifeboats around the UK are totally independent lifeboats. You wouldn't know it. So if you called a May Day or you needed a lifeboat, is for you, it's just going to be a boat that turns up more than likely orange and a load of guys in like full-on PPE, and it's like the cavalry coming over the horizon. You don't know or care whether they're independent or RLI. They still train exactly the same way as the RLI. The only difference is they don't get their funding by the RNLI or the government, they actually fundraise totally independently. So within the Solent, you've got Hamble Lifeboat, you've got Riot Rescue, uh, Gospel and Inshore Rescue, known as Gaffers. So they all raise their own funding for it. Um, and following on from that, as a volunteer lifeboat crew, when I was on there, we didn't have the mobile phone connection type thing. It was still the old traditional pager. So when you were on call for the lifeboat, you'd always carry your pager. Whether you were going to Tesco's or whether you were going to work or whether you were in bed, your pager was live. And as soon as that went beep, beep beep and it would wake you up because it's not quiet, you would literally drop what you're doing, make your way down to lifeboat station, get kitted up, get out on the lifeboat, and off you'd go. So at the time I was on Hamble Lifeboat, I lived in Hamble Village, and from the pager going off and I could be in bed, to me being on the boat, kitted up, was less than seven minutes. So we would be leaving the Hamble River at 30 knots in under seven minutes from being paged. Now, obviously, before the pager goes off, whoever is out at sea or in the mud or on a cliff top or whatever, we don't know what that situation is. The Coast Guard, the HM Coast Guard, will be dealing with the situation. Now, you could be the person on the phone in distress, or you could be the person on the radio. You're giving that information to one person in the Coast Guard. Behind that person is a team of other people. They're getting the coordinates, information. There's also them contacting the relevant assets. That could be a helicopter, that could be Shaw, or a lifeboat, depending on the situation. They're then tasking it to the ops commander andor the SMU, the marine operations guy, if it's Coast Guard, or the lifeboat operations manager of that lifeboat station. They're then basically deciding whether they can launch or not, whether they've got the crew or not, and then they'll say, okay, bomb, and the messenger will go out to the crew. So that can take a little bit of time, but not that much. Oddly enough, by the time you dial 999 or do a May Day, all of those cogs are already in motion. So while you're probably still on the phone or on the radio, people are already being paged and on their way. So one of the things I've tried to put across to many friends, family, or general public when I'm asked about it, it was like, why do they ask me to repeat my position three times? I need someone out. Well, you've given a position, whoever you're speaking to is just confirming 100% that information is accurate because they need to make sure that the assets that they're going to send to you are being sent from a relevant and close position. So if you've given a wrong location, we don't want to be sending someone from completely far away that's not going to get to you. So while all that's going on, the page will go off. You'll be literally getting down there. I mean, when I was in Hamble, um, my partner at the time, if I had to drive down, and it was only a three-minute, two, three-minute drive, I would still be getting dressed from my pajamas into my clothing while she was driving me down. Um, or if I was local, I'd literally drive down there, and then you just put your wets on uh and your life jacket and off you'd go. And while you're leaving the river, that's when the Coast Guard is then relaying the whole plan to you. Um, so this is who you're looking for, this is what the situation is, this is etc. So you're already underway, they've already worked out all of that plan, and you get there, and then as they say, it's commonly known as the cavalries come over the hill, and it's amazing to watch people when they are in a position of distress or or or something that's going on, as soon as a lifeboat or a coast guard turn up or an ambulance or a police, any emergency service, you can literally see whoever has been holding on to life or uh really kind of keeping their stuff together, just go, Oh, thank God they're here, and they just you can see physically, emotionally, everything that it's like this is now yours, please help me.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Is there a lot of adrenaline in that moment the first few times? Is that one of those experienced jobs where as you get through it a lot, you get to like a year later and you're like, I know I've done this so many times, I know what I'm coming into. Or is is there adrenaline? Does it ever stop?

SPEAKER_01 11:41

Yes and no. So, depending on what the type of job is, if it's something that you are used to, then no, it's just a normal run of the mill. Um, but when that pager goes off or when the call comes through, you don't know what you're going into. So, of course, you have to just be focused on like they say, a journey of a thousand steps starts with a single. Um something like that, anyway. So your first thought is get to lifeboat station, yeah, or get onto the patrol boat, or just that. Then you're going out and you're just taking that information. I mean, anyone who gets into any emergency services or search and rescue, you've got to lie to yourself if you're like, oh no, there's no adrenaline. But yeah, you do. I was gonna say, yeah, it's like when you start getting into the job, you're just focused on the job, you're not focused on anything else, you have to deal with that situation. Um after you've dealt with it, then obviously there is a bit of an emotional, and sometimes, whether it was on the patrol boat, a lifeboat, or whatever, you and even in the Coast Guard, if a big job had happened, that there's a lot of emotion, thoughts, feelings, whatever, you can't take that home because you don't want that within your your home. So there was quite a few times I'd sort of have to get onto a motorbike, go for a ride for an hour and just de-stress, clear head.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

I was gonna say that's a I think that's a lot of things when you work with high impact, high stress situations. I think what a lot of people do is they you've got a certain type of person who works within that industry, and I'm assuming you're one of them, which is calm head when everything around you is going crazy and it's stressful, and there's a lot to think about, and lives are at stake and it's it's intense, and you're just a calm head, you're just working through it. It is just a job, you've got things you've got to do, you've got the experience, so on and so forth. But when it's all ended, I think it's so easy to be like, Cool, that was just a job, bottle it down, suppress it, it doesn't matter what it is, move on, and then it does, like you said, eke out in your personal life in other ways. So I think taking that time to de-stress and compartment, yeah, what's happened and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Historically, uh, there was an attitude of no, we're all right, but of course, as I mean, from my parents' generation to my generation and to my kids' generation, that that sort of being open and honest about what's going on in your mind, because at the end of the day, we all get periods and moments uh where you become overwhelmed with it. Uh, so you do need to decompress. But an interesting fact of uh emergency services generally is that a large proportion of emergency medical services or police or paramedics or Coast Guard are on the spectrum. Uh, ADHD is a big thing within because you can take someone with ADHD, and whilst we're all manic, when all of a sudden someone's pulled the pin on something, the hyper focus really does kick in. And I know so many people within emergency services, lifeboat, coast guard that are um on the spectrum.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

That doesn't do you know what? Now that you say that, I know a lot of people do. I also think it's the empathy, like uh ADHD tends to be more empathetic. There's not, we're not scientists by any means.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

No, definitely not anybody like qualified to start sentence, but from from facts out there to say uh empathetic um uh ADHD, autism, etc. They they empathize a quite a lot, but they're also able to compartmentalize a lot of things and hyper focus to deal with those situations.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

So that was your time. So going out on the water, what is that job? And the only reason I'm like really narrowing this down is if there's any young uh people looking to get different jobs within this sphere, this might be actually a good opportunity to listen to kind of what Lee's saying and think, I think I could do something like that, or that's a job that I'd enjoy, you know. So, what was that going out on the water? What's that actually?

SPEAKER_01 15:58

So, in a way, if I mean I've spoken about it before. When I started my career, there was no real career path into offshore racing or anything like this, and as I've said before, it's not like we sat down with a careers advisor and went, I want to be around the world sailor, yeah, or I want to be a coast guard, or even I want to be a mariner, merchant mariner, on cruise ships or oil tankers, etc. I mean, there's some really good people out there that, like Ben, Captain Ben McInnes at Portsmouth Harbour, who really advocate for careers at sea. Um, and there are so many pathways now into careers at sea. Uh, there are universities for careers at sea, Warzash Maritime, now under Solent University, um, but there are many other universities that you can go from high school uh into college and then into maritime universities. Or if you want to go into the super yacht sector, now after doing your high school, as long as you've got the grades, there are um uh outfits like the United Kingdom Sailing Academy, UKSA, um, and many other marine schools that take you through initially the RYA process, the Royal Yachting Association, um, and you can do what used to be nicknamed the Zero to Hero.

SPEAKER_00 17:26

Oh, Mike's died, and we had to do a quick uh battery reset, but we're back into it. So Lee's obviously going on about some fantastic opportunities there for uh youngsters or anybody who's looking to kind of get into this career opportunity before you got reasonably cut off. And actually, I'm gonna say thank you to the Mike Dying because we're gonna come back to what I was talking about. Because what I wanted to actually know is what was the name of the job of somebody. Is that just so lifeboat operator or no?

SPEAKER_01 17:50

So on the lifeboat, you're just a lifeboat volunteer crew. Volunteer crew, okay, cool. Um unless you have a specific role. So, like the skipper, the the captain lifeboat is known as the lifeboat coxswain. Right, okay. Um, and you did that as well? No, I was lifeboat crew. Right. On the harbour patrol and on the pilot launch, then I was coxswain and second coxswain. So depending on where which role what I was doing. What's the difference? So a coxswain is the skipper basically. Sorry, what's the difference between the harbour stuff versus lifeboat? You are just a lifeboat. So saving people. It's just saving people. Um there's no sort of extra duties other than that, except for maybe a bit of education. Um, but the harbour authority, the harbour patrol and the pilot launch. So I worked for a port authority, which within the port of Southampton was Associated British Ports. We were based out of Gosport, and for the pilot launch, Cox and Mansoir job, many of the guys doing the job hate the phrase, but in a way, you're a glorified water taxi, but it's an extreme version of it. So you literally take the maritime pilots that basically know the local waters, the local regulations, the languages as well. They go out, they board the vessel, and they are there in an advisory capacity to the captain of the ship who knows his crew and then knows his ship, but he doesn't know the local waters and the local tides and things like that. So those two work as a team to bring the ship in safely. But obviously, the pilot launch has to take the pilot out. Sometimes they're a bit of an escort as well, uh, but you then have to safely transfer at speed a person off of a very small boat onto a massive ship, which sometimes is in very big weather. What kind of ship are we talking about? Anything. So cruise liner? I'm thinking it's an Ampton. Yeah, so cruise liners, so in extreme weather, you can't leave three to five thousand passengers on a ship in bad weather out at sea. So those when the port closes down, the cruise ship has an extra sort of level where you can potentially bring it the cruise ship in, follow me kind of way. Um, and then when you get a little bit more of a lee, the windage protection, then you'll transfer the pilot across and get them on. So the pilot doesn't actually go on the cruise ship when everybody else does, they get piloted afterwards. So the ship may have come from anywhere in the world. So once they're coming into the port of Southampton, depending on the size of the ship, will be where they will board. So, like these massive container ships that are 400 metres by 60 metres long, those will be boarded 10 miles south of the Nab Tower. So that's almost at the back of the Isle of Wight. Then you'll get like the cruise ships at the Nab Tower, so that's off the east coast of the Isle of Wight, and it's as they're starting to come into the shipping lane. And if it's bad weather, we can bring them in a little bit further and transfer them. But in bad weather, you've got to imagine you're on a very little boat in big seas doing this or this, and so is the ship. So one minute you may be looking 10-15 metres above you at the pilot door and pilot ladder, and next minute you're looking down eye to eye at the deck crew on the ship, or sometimes a bit of the water going in them. They're obviously clipped on life jacket and everything, but it's sometimes pilotage, marine pilotage, is probably one of the most dangerous careers in the world.

SPEAKER_00 21:29

That's insane. But sorry, how come if uh and forgive my ignorance for anybody who obviously understands your world and is listening to me right now, but as a listener who doesn't understand it, how come the pilot wouldn't just board the ship and swap over when they dock to take on like passengers?

SPEAKER_01 21:48

So the pilot is only there to advise the entry and exit. Right, okay. So, like for the port of Southampton from the Nab Tower all the way up into the docks, three, four hours. So they'll literally there in that advisory capacity. When the ship is leaving, they'll board the ship in the cruise terminal or on the container terminal or even on the oil terminal. They'll board the ship, step on it, walk ashore, there's a normal taxi that'll bring around. As they're leaving the harbour or the jurisdiction of the portal authority, that's when they will get off. So again, the pilot launch will go out, they'll communicate with the ship and the pilot, and then the pilot will climb down a ladder, and there's plenty of videos on YouTube to watch pilots boarding and disembarking ships, and it's dangerous. I mean that there is quite a few fatalities globally of uh pilots.

SPEAKER_00 22:46

God damn.

SPEAKER_01 22:47

And there's an amazing pilot in Holland uh who is really driving forward uh safety of pilotage because the amount of ships worldwise that don't comply to safety standards of ladders being the right heights or or such and such or tying it on, it's the nature of the beast, I think, at the moment.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

Isn't that super dangerous? Because I swear, how how do like if you've got I'm just trying to think of like the biggest kind of version of a ship I can think of. So something like a cruise ship. Much bigger than that. I saw okay, even all tankers, like I swear you'd have to go engines off before you approach it, because isn't there a drawer of water under the ship?

SPEAKER_01 23:26

So all the ships, so let's talk about uh um a container ship, uh Cat6 container ship. So that is the 400 meter long, 60 meter wide. As they're moving through the water, the bow obviously pushes like a bow wave, and there's a positive and a negative pressure on that bow wave. So as they're ahead, you're being pushed away from the ship. Once you get over that bow wave, if you're close enough to the ship, then you get that negative pressure and it will suck you in towards the ship.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

So sometimes you're actually pinned against the ship, and pilot cutters, they're normally really massive engines, loads of power in there, and they can get away. I mean, the Port of Southampton, their pilot cutters, there was two um uh what were they uh Volvo D12s on them, so well over a thousand horsepower. Um and literally you put throttles down there, and it will, admittedly, sometimes you're driving up the side of the ship until you can sort of get that uh positive pressure to push you away, or if the ship is started to turn or you're alongside, you're either going to be pinned into it and just can't, so you just have to ask the pilot uh or the ship to straighten up. That's insane. There is those moments, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

Yeah, wow. Have you and you've been on the boat when that stuff's happened? Yeah, yeah. Wow. Have you got any stories that stick in mind or things you're allowed to say? Yeah, you are.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

I mean, putting pilots on uh onto ships, you'll get out there, and obviously the vessel traffic services team, they're talking to the ships well ahead of us even leaving the dock. Um, and they'll be telling the ships what height they need to set the ladders at from the water line, and you'll get there, and even though you've said metre and a half, two metres above the water, the ladder will be trailing in the water, so you then have to stand off, they need to rearrange it, or you'll get alongside and they've just not rigged it correctly, um, or you'll get alongside it, looks and appears to be rigged correctly, and then the pilot will look at it and go, nah, the the rope's looking really frayed, or they've not rigged up the safety lines, or the stuff like that. And yeah, there's loads of uh videos out there of a pilot getting half the way up the side of a ship that 10 metres up, and then all of a sudden the rope will snap and it'll drop onto the deck of the pilot boat or into the water. So it's a really dangerous job.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

Yeah, I was gonna say, because surely then with that negative pressure, okay, you're a boat that can deal with it, but if you're a person that goes in, do you not just get sucked straight under the boat?

SPEAKER_01 26:01

Um I've seen helmet cam footage, so obviously I've not been in that situation myself, so I can't say yeah, I got sucked under. But I have seen helmet cam footage of people being sucked down the side of a ship. Um, there is actually a very famous YouTube video of a guy on a uh PWC uh personal watercraft jet ski trying to jump the bow wave. Obviously, uh Darwin award candidate here. Yep. Jump in the bow wave, and as he goes over, he basically loses his footing and positioning, pulls the kill cord off, so the engine on his uh jet ski dies, and then you can see on his helmet cam footage he's physically pushing down the side of the ship to try and keep him away. And as he approaches the back of the ship, you can see him go underwater, and in the very faint, you can literally see the propeller of the ship turning, and then he comes out the other end, and obviously adrenaline kicked in and his trousers are probably a bit brown, but you can hear him go, Oh my god, oh my god, oh so look it up, it's an interesting video, but yeah. He survived. He survived, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:07

Oh my that's insane.

SPEAKER_01 27:09

Yeah. I mean that that those are the joys of people filming themselves doing dumb stuff and then putting it up on uh internet.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

Yeah, I mean, to be honest, if there was how big would that boat have been?

SPEAKER_01 27:20

Uh that particular ship I think was 260 to 320 metres. Yeah, don't think I'd I can't recall exactly which ship it was, but it was in that range.

SPEAKER_00 27:28

Think if I had a jet ski, I'd be staying far away from one of those. So I think, yeah, your comments are correct on that.

SPEAKER_01 27:33

Within port authorities, you you have to stay, there are legal requirements and bylaws of how close you can come to a ship when underway. Yeah. So over, I think it's 220 metres, you have to stay a thousand metres ahead and a hundred metres either side within you uh the port of Southampton, and I think that's pretty much the same anywhere in the world.

SPEAKER_00 27:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

Obviously, each harbour authority changes their own regulations. So then what was the other job you then did? Uh so that's on the pilot cutter. Within that, I also was part of the harbour patrol launch, so the harbour master uh patrol launch. So we would be there to escort and support the ships entering in and out. So we were then the eyes and the ears of the pilot on the bridge and the master on the bridge, and we would literally be sort of the patrol boat ahead. So we'd be not necessarily showing the line of where the ship is going to go, but we'd be taking a rough line, and the pilot would be saying, Okay, there is that boat that's a risk. Um, please ask them to go. Um, and one particular incident was uh during Cows Week, um, there was a yacht that was coming down, he was seeing his finish line and just kept coming. And the pilots at the time, there were two pilots on that particular ship, had said, Look, we need that boat to basically bear away, go off to the east, don't keep coming across our bow. Um, they were told multiple times uh to basically go that way, and the master of that yacht or the skipper of that yacht was just like, nope, nope, no, I can see, I'm clear ahead, um, I'll pass ahead. What he didn't take into consideration was that the ship was turning to port, so it was just an ever-increasing collision. And then within that high and low pressure, obviously, there's that on the wind as well. Um, and he got just in front of the ship, and obviously the vacuum there has been absorbed and the yacht stopped. His spinnaker uh got wrapped round the port anchor, uh, ripped the mast down, and unfortunately, a couple of people uh were injured on board. And just before the collision, one of the crew actually went, sod this, and jumped overboard and went down the starboard side of the ship. And obviously, the the yacht dismasted uh went down the port side of the ship. Um, there was actually a tug attached to the ship as well. They'd gone off onto the starboard side to help the ship turn, uh, to basically help it go round to port to the left. Um, the tug's pulling out, and of course, he's seen this person in the water, so he's ducked behind the ship. Person's gone by, and then as he's come out, he's like, Oh, there's a yacht coming down that side. So uh, yeah, that was um an entertaining uh day. Yeah, I can imagine. Um, yeah, it was um quite a full-on day on that.

SPEAKER_00 30:19

What happened?

SPEAKER_01 30:20

Who's at fault for that one? Well, with that particular incident, of course it'd be the yacht. Well, I mean, that particular incident, it ended up going to court. The master of the vet, the yacht. Yeah, the master of the yacht was found guilty. Uh, he did appeal, but obviously he was still uh guilty of it. Um but in that situation, obviously, the harbour authority uh have to carry out an investigation uh because it's in UK waters and a UK boat was involved, the Maritime Coast Guard Agency they had to do an investigation with the marine accident investigation branch, and all through all of that, obviously it ended up in court.

SPEAKER_00 30:55

So unreal. Well, look, unbelievable stories there. And I think next time I really want to dive into your racing side of things. Um, I do have to say, I do uh donate to one of the lifeboat charities. I think, like, you know, some of the stories you've told me, but previously I've always heard is they're not funded, you know, a lot of them aren't funded, and they're doing some really intense work and they're saving people's lives, and they are not funded. So, is there anyone who you recommend to go and talk to with regards to the charity work or so?

SPEAKER_01 31:27

If you are interested in getting involved with lifeboats, where you live, each lifeboat station has a radius of where you can operate, uh so a maximum distance away from the lifeboat station. Because when that pager goes off, you need to react and be there within a certain period of time. If you're interested in it, contact your local lifeboat station, have a chat with the launch operations manager or the crew, just go down and have a chat with them. All lifeboat crew are really, really friendly people. They're like me, they're really passionate about saving lives at sea and educating people as well. It's not just about um saving lives, it's about education. So go down, have a chat with them, find out more about whether they are a Royal National Lifeboat Institute or whether they're an independent lifeboat.

SPEAKER_00 32:13

Fantastic. Look, Lee, appreciate your time as always. This has been episode six. See you on the next one. Cheers.