A visiting lifeboat - hard working crew

Went to Whitby again today. We got a bit of a surprise to see what we initially thought was the Whitby lifeboat coming back in, until we spotted the Whitby boat moored in its usual spot.

Turns out, according to a chap we got talking to who plucked up the courage to speak to a harbour official that was about, that it was visiting from Aberdeen, heading to the Humber to take over there for a few weeks while their boat went for a refit.

Anyway, maybe the crew were unfamiliar with local conditions in the mouth of the Esk, or maybe it was unfortunate timing, but they had a right old job getting it moored for refuelling. We watched for best part of an hour as the went to and fro, trying to maneuver this large boat into a very awkward spot against strong currents.

The managed of course, but the poor crew were running this way and that, throwing and hoisting ropes, gathering them back in, trying again, and again, all while the chap that was driving was steering this way and that, working the engines in all manner of ways that I can't comprehend given my complete absence of knowledge in such matters

I hope they had time for a few pints before continuing on their journey tomorrow.



The chap on the right of the pic with his hands in his pockets works in the 'petrol station' (marine diesel it says on his hut). He's waiting for the lifeboat to get in close enough to refuel. You can see its still daylight at this point. Also note I'm stood on the harbour wall, facing upstream, with the harbour mouth behind me. That means there's an awkward wall interrupting the flow of water, which presumably causes some interesting currents, which might explain why the crew had so much trouble, and you look at the big wooden support beam holding the jetty up, just in front of where diesel man is waiting, you'll see its bent in, obviously walloped a few times in the past by other boats having bother getting in. I wonder if the diesel chap knows that his bit of the jetty is bust



After much effort, the front end of the boat is finally in position. The back end isn't, and in any case it didn't stay that way for long. The currents were just fighting the boat all the time.



Nearly there. Disel man has a friend now. His friend caught the rope from the lifeboat and tied it onto the jetty. Diesel man is looking quite bored now.

The chap at the back of the boat eventually got a rope onto the jetty too, and they manually hoisted the thing in. There was a bit of an anti-climax because at that point diesel man just lowered a very ordinary looking fuel hose, much like you get at the petrol station, and one of the lifeboat crew started filling up. Wife wanted to stick around to watch what happened next until I suggested it might take a bit longer than filling our car, I can't imagine a boat of that size having a 60 litre fuel tank.