Never believe the weather forecast, for today it suggested that it was going to rain just after lunch and as yet, not a drop of liquid sunshine.
Overnight it rained very hard, so most walks through the woods or forests were ruled out as mum didn’t want us to get too dirty, so we decided to go to Silloth.
Silloth offers us a longish walk both on concrete, to file our nails down and grass to run around on and is a a place we have visited many times.
Our walk started in the usual way from the Carrs Flour mill along the seafront. We then walked back on the grass past the lighthouse and tennis courts back to ….. And this is where mum just had to stop for fish and chips eaten in the open air on a park bench.
Somehow food eaten outside just tastes different. Mum and dad sat on the bench whilst we looked longingly at every mouthful. Fish is good for us we woofed when we wanted just that little bit more.
Just as mum was putting the waste wrappers in to the dustbin a number of cars passed by, a little quicker than is normal on a town street, down the road away from the town centre towards the coast.
We thought nothing more of it until we approached the lifeboat station where a number of humans had gathered around and a bright orange boat was being trundled out of the lifeboat station towards the top of the slipway.
Mum then put the jigsaw pieces together and realised that the people in the quickly moving cars must have been RNLI crew responding to an alert and that the Silloth lifeboat was about to be launched.
The average time to launch an inshore lifeboat is seven minutes.
Silloth has a B Class (Atlantic) rigid inflatable lifeboat which is kept undercover in the lifeboat station.
When an emergency call is received the crew are summoned by pager to attend the boat.
It is then wheeled out and down the slipway in a few minutes.
With a top speed of 35knots and a crew of 3 or 4 the 1.8 tonnes of lifeboat quickly leaves the launch trolley and enters the Solway Firth.
The RNLI established a lifeboat station and a boathouse was built on the promenade at Seaview in 1860.
The current lifeboat station and improved slipway was built in the mid 1990’s and features a small shop and facilities for the crew to change and train.
It was officially opened by HRH The Duchess of Kent on 11 October 1995.
Once launched, the tractor and trailer are recovered from the slipway and wait nearby for the emergency to be over and the lifeboat to return.
The Silloth Lifeboat headed right as it left the cradle and with a range of 3 hours at full power could be gone for a considerable time so we decided to move on.
Looking at the RNLI website upon our return it looks as if it has been a busy day for some of the volunteers as lifeboats have also been launched in Sunderland, Skegness and New Brighton this afternoon.