We visited the RNLI college to take our granddaughter on their tour of the college. The tour guide was a little bit of a statistician and he was talking a little bit above the heads of the four children who were on the tour. A lot of talk about the money and quantities of volunteers etc. Interesting for the adults but a bit boring for the children. They perked up a bit when we got taken into the simulator, which is a small room designed as the deck of a lifeboat. They have 4 window around the room looking out onto a sea scene, which in our case included a ship on fire. The four children had been encouraged to become navigator, coxswain, radio operator and helmsman. Unfortunately our helmsman steered us straight into a Sunseeker type boat, not a good start. However we eventually got to the ship on fire and had to "rescue" 3 casualties in the water. It was quite scarey when the guide went out of the room and turned the "wick" up to storm force 7. I would have liked to have seen storm force 10, but for the sake of the children it was probably for the best. We were then taken to the training pool where they showed us what the trainees have to do on the tank to learn their skills. It was very interesting. It was a shame that the guide liked the sound of his own voice quite so much as I feel he drowned us in facts, instead of showing us more practical things like how a lifeguard works etc. Things that people could perhaps relate to. We topped the trip off with a visit to the Slipway Bar and had a very nice lunch on a gorgeous sunny autumn day. A worthwhile trip for a good cause. The cost for the tour was £6.50 per person. Plus lunch obviously.
