Busy week for Newhaven lifeboat as the autumn weather hits

With the support of a dedicated community and a raft of recent training the team are readier than ever to continue saving lives at sea.

It was a reflective start as RNLI Newhaven crew members gathered alongside the boathouse to show their respect for the late Brian Ashdown. He dedicated more than 20 years of his life volunteering as assistant mechanic. He made his final pass past the Lifeboat station on Tuesday, October 13, the day of his funeral.

Meanwhile RNLI pagers have continued to bleep throughout these unprecedented months of Covid-19.

Like all RNLI stations, Newhaven is respecting social distancing measures meaning training operations have been significantly reduced in order to limit the risk of infection.

Despite these challenges Newhaven has continued to bolster its team. Danny Woodford has achieved crew status after passing his final assessment. Danny signed up to join two years ago and this year he has been on 41 launches, 22 of which were to emergency incidents.

Another nine members of the 20-strong volunteer crew were also assessed and passed 27 collective units between them. Assessment categories ranged from mechanical knowledge to crew fitness to navigation, with two crew now additionally qualified to navigate the All Weather Lifeboat. Newhaven’s most recent crew member Jo Goode joined in September from Brighton Lifeboat Station.

Newly delivered towing equipment to aid the safety of crew when conducting towing has also been tested by Newhaven’s David and Elizabeth Acland Severn class lifeboat and her volunteer crew. This year Newhaven Lifeboat has been launched 59 times and on 14 occasions the coxswain decided towing of the casualty vessel to be the most appropriate means of rescue.

Over the past week the crew was also dispatched to a calls to help a person cut off by the tide west of Birling Gap and to a reported kayaker in difficulty at Pevensey Bay, which turned out to be a tree branch.