Beepless Alert

I had a rendez-vous at the Lifeboat Station. Michel, Lulu and Yours Truly were to get a small outboard-driven RIB into working order and cross the port to bring it to the old fishing boat we are restoring.

Arriving there, I found quite a few lifeboatmen listening anxiously to the VHF. There had been an aircraft accident out at sea, and a large-scale SAR mission was under way. We were on standby, the next level down from a 'shout'. So our beepers hadn't sounded. The radio traffic between the aircraft, helicopters and search vessels was none too optimistic. A few unidentified debris, perhaps not even from an aeroplane.

It began to look unlikely that we would be tasked, so Lulu and I took the RIB across the harbour and moored it next to the fishing vessel. Checked the fishing boat's VHF for any further developments, and then headed back to the Lifeboat Station.

When we got back, there was black humour galore. The plane had been found, and also, sadly, the bodies of the people on board (British, apparently). But it had crashed into a mountain, not into the sea. It was not a place we could easily go with the lifeboat, even if tasked, so we were stood down.