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-

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - The RNLI have introduced a Digital Pager System hooked up to the internet. You can now download a desktop widget ‘RNLI Digital Pager’ and become a ‘Virtual Crew Member’ on a call-out.

‘Every time the pager pings onto the screen it means that RNLI volunteers are dropping everything and heading out to sea to help someone who could be in trouble - there are on average 20 lifeboat launches a day and this pager really shows just what a busy and vital service RNLI lifeboats provide.

The digital pager has a time offset of a few minutes to prevent spectators causing trouble for crew members trying to launch the boat.

Download Digital Pager Here

I have a vision of the future of rescue I’m slowly working through in my head. I see the internet playing a massive role. My idea of ‘OpenRescue’ is along the lines of this paging device alerting 1000’s of people who all partake in a search from their desk by aiding the team on the ground. This participation may come in many forms but an example would be sifting through hundreds of satellite photos of the sea to try and spot a liferaft etc. I’ll write more about ‘OpenRescue’ later.

-Robin-