…the Sevenstones Lightship from THV ‘Galatea’ is a ticklish business. I joined the maintenance team from the Trinity House flagship, who were going aboard on a routine visit. Along with them went two lads from the Met Office, tasked with checking the weather-watching gear aboard. Some of it a bit long in the tooth, but still serviceable. Anyway, as we came alongside a frightful screeching arose, seemingly from nowhere. Couldn’t work out what it was, as we rose up and down in the swell awaiting the right moment to seize the fixed ladder to get aboard. Ticklish really is the word for this seemingly simple manoeuvre – one slip between boat and ship and you’re lucky to get away with just a broken leg. And the screeching? The ship’s bird scarer, to keep pooping seabirds from doing it on deck!
COMING ABOARD…
08 October 2018
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About Rob
Rob is a TV producer, reporter and camera operator with 30 years of experience at the BBC, Channel 4 and ITN, in news, factual and documentary production. He is a four-time award winner, whose awards include a coveted Royal Television Society award for his work on Channel 4 News. His association with the Maritime Foundation goes back to 1995 when he won the first Desmond Wettern Maritime Media Award for a series of reports that led to a major documentary on the loss of the bulk carrier Derbyshire.