DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) - I had the fortune to attend a Sea Survival training course in the amazing NMCI at the Irish Naval Base in Cork last weekend. The pool has simulated environmental effects including cold water, darkness, rain, wind, waves, lightning - great storm conditions.

They threw us in full clothes and with 2 pairs of overalls on-top to test our life-jackets. After a day of training we moved up to our full survival kit and had a simulated boat abandonment from a rib in the dark into a liferaft.

The experience was daunting - no matter how comfortable you are with it, I really would not like to do this for real - especially with untrained passengers. I didn’t realise how out of your comfort zone you are in a liferaft when everything is cramped, stuffy, and jelly to touch. Ever felt sea-sick in a swimming pool? With this simulator it’s possible.

Here’s some video and photos from the day…

Irish Coast Guard Sea Survival Course from Robin Blandford on Vimeo.

Full set here.

-Robin.

(Image Credits: VF, Crosshaven)

SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - Thanks to Ciaran Rooney (via Twitter) for the heads up. AQA offer a service where you can text any question to 63336 (UK) or 57275 (Ireland) and they will find an answer and SMS you back for £1 or €2.

This great story (read the lead-in here about how they got lost on a remote Thai Island). I’m off to near this Island in 3 weeks!

At this point we were scared by the potential of spending the whole night in the jungle as we didn’t know what it would hold, snakes, monkeys, spiders, bandits etc! I first texted 63336 and asked for the number of the police in Koh Phanyang, they promptly sent me back the number for the police in Koh Phanyang but also the number for the tourist police on the neighboring Island (Koh Samui). The Koh Phanyang police didn’t speak any English so I was unable to communicate with them, we tried the number for the tourist police constantly but there was no answer.

I texted 63336 again and asked for the number of my hotel as I hoped they would be able to call the police and talk to them in Thai. But again, nobody at the hotel could speak English very well so that plan didn’t work. Fast running out of ideas I texted 63336 a more general message saying “We are lost in the Thai jungle do you have any idea as to what we could do?

Then after an answer, and to our great relief, we got a call from Bill at AQA to see how AQA could help further. He talked to us to get some details about roughly where we were and said to leave it with him.

-Robin.

A 100% volunteer operated 999/112 Emergency Service - Charity Number 10148

SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - We’ve got to support the mountain rescue team local to most of the TGU bloggers. Gerry, Dublin Wicklow Mountain Rescue PRO has left a message in our forums asking for your support at their fund-raising drive in central Dublin on Saturday.

The team will be out looking for your support this Saturday 23rd of February on Grafton street from 09.00 till 18.00. Yes a long day as this is one of our main fund raising drive’s that we hold through the year. And it is vital so that we can collect much needed funds to keep the team out of the red. A lot of people are under the impression that because we are a 999/112 emergency service that we are paid and funded by the Government. We are a 40 strong team of unpaid volunteers on call 24/7, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

You can reply to Gerry here.

Their new website also has a Donate By PayPal button so it’s really easy to pay by credit card :-)

-Robin.

(Image Credit: Deputy Team Leader at the 2008 Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician exercise. Via dwmrt.ie)

SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - It’s all happening this week in at sea (read the Day 3 update on the Portrush Lifeboat Grounding). Overnight a Cargo ferry with roll-on-roll-off cargo and some passengers got hit by a freak wave and was grounded on blackpool beach.

The latest news is that the Irish Coast Guard Helicopter is now monitoring the situation and will fly to the UK to aid the situation if required.

Sitting on the bottom, it has developed a 40 degree list. All but a few crew have been airlifted off by RAF sea kings. We have video released by the HM Coastguard RAF helicopter on-scene (from RAF Kinloss), via BBC.

The ship is called the Riverdance. It crosses the Irish sea 2 times a day with freight trucks. I wonder what goods are onboard - and if this thing goes (pretty likely with the current winds, but may be prevented if a sand bottom) what will end up on the shore. Last time we had the Mercedes!

The large wave shifted all the cargo, causing it to tilt.

Reuters are reporting:

The crew comprised 15 Poles and four Britons. Four passengers had been on board. There were no reports of injuries.

The crew remaining on board were working to ballast the vessel to improve its stability, a coastguard statement said, adding there was “no reported oil pollution from the vessel”.

A Royal Airforce spokesman said the rescue conditions had been “the worst you could ever think it could be, and then some more”.

Winds of Storm Force 10 were reported, meaning up to 60 mph, with gusts taking the figure higher, and waves of more than 20 feet (7 metres)

-Robin-

(Image Credits: RAF, BBC)

SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - Thanks to Diverman for submitting these videos to TGU. Considering this was our top story yesterday with lots of people searching for an update on the news I felt it worthwhile adding this post. Not followed this so far? View our original breaking news story.

Here’s the actual rescue taking place. The Irish Coast Guard helicopter is airlifting the remaining crew from the deck of the lifeboat. The original vessel in distress can be seen on the rocks in the foreground.

Here’s the lifeboat from the pier. Taken the next day.

Here it is again, this time it’s taken from high up on a headland, you can see the whole scene and area of the incident.

Here’s a Great piece from the BBC including closeup footage and interviews

Latest update Day 3:

both boats still there and wind / sea increasing all the time

RTE Report:

An operation to free Northern Ireland’s largest lifeboat has again been called off.

Attempts to refloat the €3m vessel were suspended yesterday evening.

In other news, a crew have been airlifted off a cargo ferry in the Irish sea that is currently at a 40 degree list. uh oh.

Please remember to donate to the RNLI, it is an extremely worthy cause. Hopefully they get the boat (Ireland’s largest class) off safely and without too many repair costs.

-Robin-

SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - RTE News are reporting that the Portrush lifeboat was thrown onto rocks by a large wave as its crew attended an emergency call last night. It was stuck there on high ground as the tide went out. They attempted to get it off today but without luck.

The RNLI has suspended an effort to free a lifeboat which became grounded overnight near Rathlin Island off the Co Antrim coast. The operation will resume tomorrow after a failed attempt by a tug boat from Derry to free the vessel at high tide today.

Severn Class Lifeboat, this is seriously expensive machinery (boat specs). RNLI have a detailed report on their own site.

The three people who were at the centre of the rescue attempt were safely assisted to the shore by the Rathlin Island Coastguard team.

The Irish examiner reports…

Two of the lifeboat crew were thrown into the water from the lifeboat’s small inflatable boat after assisting in the attempts to refloat the all-weather lifeboat. They both managed to scramble ashore safely.

But I’ve no other reports of this.

-Robin-

(Image Credit: RTE News, BBC News, RNLI)

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Here’s some more of these flying maniacs in wingsuits, this guy is known as “The Dude” (full post coming tomorrow on landing without a parachute (thanks to reader tipoff). These videos are incredible. Absolutely incredible.

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Follow Tango & Cash the NI MTB Boys in their latest adventure, To Err-igal is Human.

The mighty Mount Errigal, County Donegal. Basically a big 750-metre-high wobbly peat trifle with granite crushed nuts on top. We always wanted to have a crack at it on/with the bikes, so we departed Antrim at 5:40am on Saturday 15 December 2007, to climb the mountain.

We knew it was a carry to the top, so we padded the top- and down-tubes with pipe lagging from B&Q. It’s a good idea if you are going to be carrying for a long period.

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MS “Beluga SkySails” is the worlds first tanker to be towed by kite. The kite is 160m sq.

Ship christening of the worldwide first cargo ship with SkySails-System took place at the Hamburger Landungsbrücken/Überseebrücke on December 15th, 2007 – Milestone regarding the use of environmentally sound propulsion technologies at sea.

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The Kandersteg Ice Climbing Festival starts tonight in Switzerland. Love that event. Above is one of my photos from 2004 when I watched Ines Papart win first place.

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How not to launch an RNLI lifeboat from the beach. The on-shore wind blew this English crew back onto the beach, for a minute it looks like they weren’t going to get away. Massive seas. Watch this video. (Thanks diverman).

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All climbing have a great video of Will Gadd ice climbing icebergs from waterlevel. Massive icebergs too! Iceberg-oldering anyone?

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Adventure Race World Series has been announced in Ireland for June 14-21 2008. Location is South West and more details are available from Jan 11th.

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-Robin-

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Howth Coastguard & RNLI were up at 4am yesterday to rescue 4 men from rocks in Howth. Their fishing boat was holed and sunk within minutes. I understood that the All-weather sent in its tender and the inshore brought them back to harbour. Great job! Video on RTE (click link at bottom of page).

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First photos coming through of the 154 rescued from the sinking Antarctic cruise ship overnight. Crazy. My latest update is that the captain & 1st officer are still onboard and the ship is at 25 degrees.

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Fancy driving up Elbrus in a landrover? These guys did! Not only that, but they left it up there! I had no idea of this, and there’s photos of it being found by another expedition.

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GO-Blog have found a free Mountain Hardware Cookbook, for great meals in the hills. Download it! (3MB).

It’s 20 pages of recipes from the world’s top climbers, skiers, adventurers. Keep in mind the many of the authors of the recipes may be high altitude experts, so there’s the whole brain damage thing.

Love it!

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Our TGU Forums have started to get a bit of chat going on. Thanks ’siubhanmac’ who left a post about the ‘Ocean to City 2008′ race in Cork.

An Ras Mor is set for the 31st of May 2008. The race is open to all types of fixed seat rowing craft including kayaks. The course runs from Crosshaven in Co Cork up to Lapps Quay in Cork city over 15 nautical miles taking in Roches point.

Cheers Siubahn!

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I hope you enjoyed that round up!

-Robin-

(Image Credits: All from their respective websites as linked.)

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - Sorry about the cheesy title! Brian mailed me this morning to say their new site at www.doolincoastguard.com had gone live. The Doolin Unit of the Irish Coast Guard is located in County Clare on the west coast of Ireland. All volunteers, on-call 24/7/365.

If you’re an Irish climber and take a slip at Doolin or Ailladie, over the edge, twist an ankle on a sea cliff pitch or bottom out… these are the guys coming to pick you up along with the SAR Helicopter based at Shannon Airport.

The team offer Cliff Rescue, Sea Rescue (Delta Rib & D-Class) & Coastal Search. They have a 4×4 Isuzu, Honda Quad, Ford Gear Van & a Tractor for rough RIB launches.

Their site gives a great personal overview of their rescue operation. The guys have a fantastic video archive, worth a watch.

The Unit is comprised of 24 volunteers who are on call 24 hours 365 Days a year.Volunteers are alerted through a VHF based paging system.

The Irish Coast Guard is a part of the 999/112 emergency system and the Doolin coastal unit is one of fifty two similar teams located at regular intervals around the Irish Coastline.

Take a look at www.doolincoastguard.com.

-Robin-

(Image Credit: John Kelly, Doolin Coast Guard.)

Disclaimer: I’m a volunteer at howthcoastguard.com

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - A TGU reader Robert Poli has commented on the Steve Fossett search post to say he’s found something in Google Earth.

Look at coordinates:
N38* 50′ 04″
W118*52′45.37″
small, white, right angle image on mountainside.

A quick check of the coordinates ourselves and we’ve uploaded the screenshot above. Yes it does look like something, but it appears me that it lies outside of the updated images given by Amazon Mechanical Turk. This in my mind means it’s on an old image, and probably taken before last week.

Robert, to play safe, have you relayed these coordinates to the authorities? Can our readers shed any more light on this object?

-Robin-