WESTERN MAIL WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2017  19
>>Deputy coxswain Marc Gibbons
it’ – the volunteer crew of Barry Dock RNLI in action
“We ended up back at the station
to have a pot of tea to have a chat but
everyone gets on with it in their own
way.”
Marc, 28, who dreamed of becom-
ing a “lifeboat man” after trips to dif-
ferent stations on family holidays,
remembers the fear in the eyes of
two children while they were stuck
on a rock surrounded by the terror of
the sea.
“Once there were two 10-year-old
girls out on a rock and they were
stuck. The moment they got on the
rescue boat they wouldn’t let go of
me until we got back into the har-
bour. They were terrified. It wasn’t
the most heroic of rescues but it was
a lovely summer’s evening and the
tide came in quickly. The fear in
those children was unreal.”
The team also face the challenge of
dealing with the ferocity of the sea
itself.
Nigel Parry did not have any form
of sailing background when he
joined the RNLI and just wanted to
try something different.
“I remember getting called out
>>Crewman Mark Fisher
once in awful weather and thinking
most normal people are heading in
the other direction. If it’s bad you stay
inside the boat. You’re all strapped in
the harness and it’s very noisy, very
hot and you are being thrown around
quite a bit. The worst is when you
have had a big meal and had to put
on all your gear and run on to the
pontoon.”
Perhaps unsuprisingly, none of
the volunteers admits to seasickness
when being thrown around in the
rough waters.
But temperatures can quickly drop
out at sea with the rising wind – a
fact some have learned the hard way
before adding hats and gloves to
their emergency kit.
As calls can mean hours on the
boat, members can take shelter in
the cabin, where an emergency stock
of tea, biscuits and chocolate is
stored to keep energy levels high.
But with all focus on the mission
itself, most volunteers turn their
attention to describing the adrena-
lin-fuelled feeling of being called
out.
>>Coxswain Martin Bowmer
Stephen Duncombe
Nigel, who works as an aeroplane
engineer inspector for General Elec-
tric in Nantgarw, said being a mem-
ber of the RNLI affects not just him,
but his whole family.
The father of five children, Nigel
said his kids have got used to it but for
his wife the worry never goes away.
“My wife still gets worried since
you’re going into the unknown.
“For the kids it’s normal for them
since they’ve grown up with it. It’s
normal for me to dash off when the
pager goes – they help me with my
keys and wallet.”
When that call comes in the crew
have little idea of what’s in store and
it’s important for them to get to the
station as quickly as they can.
“We all make sure the car is always
facing in the right direction,” said
Nigel. “You have to think your routes
through – getting on Barry Island can
be a nightmare. It can be quite frus-
trating but you have to drive safely.”
They have to drop everything to
get there as soon as possible.
More than one of the men has left
his wife in the middle of the weekly
>>Crewman Nigel Parry
food shop.
“I’ve been in the middle of taking
my wife to dinner once when my
pager went off. By the time I had kit-
ted up at the station they had found
the person, but they cancelled my
order when I got back to the restau-
rant,” said Howard Metcalfe, a semi-
retired consultant mechanic from
Barry.
“I always leave a set of clothes by
the bed so if it goes off you’re straight
out the door. I leave shoes in the
porch with a pair of socks in because
if you have to run back up the stairs
you’re losing vital time.”
Howard is also training to be a
navigator for the team and must be
within a 10-minute drive of the sta-
tion when covering for the full-time
navigator.
“You can get a bit stir-crazy. You
can’t even go for a walk because I
need to be only a couple of minutes
from the car,” he said.
Some crew members have more
maritime experience than others.
David Brooks, known by his child-
hood nickname of “Digger”,
describes himself as a “harbour rat”.
His brother is a fellow volunteer and
his parents live overlooking the pon-
toon where the rescue boats are
docked.
Much to his embarrassment, the
team was called out once after a
member of the public reported a
boat near a dangerous piece of coast.
After kitting up, they found David
and his girlfriend on his private boat
happily sailing towards them.
The tugboat operator said: “One
minute you’re asleep, three minutes
later you don’t know what you’ll be
faced with. In my work it’s a lot more
predictable.
“One guy was having his hair cut
once and had to go out. He came
back three hours later to have it fin-
ished.
“I’ve been in sandwich places
were you just have to go. They know
I’ll come back and pay later.”
Like Marc, David also has one par-
ticular rescue mission that sticks in
mind over his years of volunteering.
“There was one call about six or
seven years ago at Whitmore Bay. We
went straight to Friars Point and it
was a flat, calm summer day and the
tide was out. We met the coastguard
down in the road who said children
had got out the water saying there
was one more out there somewhere.”
After going out on the search for
the child, David said: “The wash of
the bigger lifeboat washed the boy
up and I got him in the boat and
started CPR. He had been underwa-
ter and lifeless for five minutes mini-
mum. At that point your training just
kicks in. At the end of the day I’m not
a paramedic, I drive boats so they
take a lot of time and effort to make
sure we are all trained to a really
good standard.
“Somebody had already called for
a helicopter and it happened to be
on a training exercise in the area. It
landed on the beach and they got
him to hospital.”
Despite his heroic actions, David
>>Deputy coxswain David Phillips
remains modest.
“The family came back down some
time later to thank us and make a
donation to the RNLI. At the time it
wasn’t a great day, but when we real-
ised he was all right that was the
main thing.”
Even for those who save lives on a
daily basis, treating people at sea can
be difficult.
John McAllister was originally a
butcher when he joined the RNLI 14
years ago but after being inspired by
a fellow volunteer who worked as a
paramedic he decided to change his
career by training to become a mem-
ber of the Welsh Ambulance Service.
“Occasionally you finish work and
are driving home and your pager
goes off and you turn around and
drive to the station. If you’re lucky
they will have enough people to go
out or it will only be a few hours
long,” said John.
The 41-year-old added: “The long-
est shift we were out on was 18 hours
of searching and it was a hoax call.
“We had three other lifeboats and
a helicopter. I had finished work for
the day and the pager went off at
around five or six and we didn’t
come back until 2pm the next day.
“You’re out there getting fatigued
and still going, so when you realise
it’s fake you’re b****y angry.”
John said: “Out at sea is a different
sort of decision-making process. It
can be quite different to switch from
the RNLI mode to work mode. You
have to think about the state of the
boat and weigh it all up.”
But John said that whatever they
are faced with, they all have a strong
bond and work together as a team.
“We come down here and you enjoy
it. There’s 22 blokes and we all come
from different backgrounds and with
different interests and who wouldn’t
normally have met.”
While many have volunteered at
the lifeboat station for decades, none
has been there for as long as offshore
application engineer Mark Fisher.
Joining at the age of 17, Mark has
been a volunteer for more than 20
years after first starting under the
instruction of his stepfather, who
was coxswain at the time.
Mark, who is dad to one-year-old
son George, said: “When I started
there were no pagers, just the tele-
phone. The guard would call my
stepfather’s house. We would write
our numbers down and give the list
to the coastguard to tell work and
family when we would be back.”
After being a crew member for so
long, Mark has some wise advice for
those younger than him.
“My motto from this is, ‘bring
something to it but don’t expect to
take anything away from it’. You
bring your time and your experience
and if you want anything else you’re
doing it for the wrong reason.
“Every crew member has to have a
strong partner trust or you couldn’t
do it. They are as important to the
boat as the crew. If they don’t sup-
port you, you can’t do it.”
■■ To donate to the RNLI, call 0300
300 9990 or see www.rnli.org