MRI Coastal Notes 2006

Click on the headings to read the full Coastal Notes....

Coastal Notes 19 December 2006
As the final note of the last Coastal Notes of 2006 we’d like to thank all the people, too many to mention individually, who give MRI their support, and to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Coastal Notes 5 December 2006
Stonehaven lies approximately 57o N of the Equator.  If you were to take a journey around the globe keeping to the same latitude, you might be a bit surprised at some of the places you pass through .....

Coastal Notes 21 November 2006
What does SOS mean?  Save Our Souls? Save Our Ship? Send Out Succour?  Actually the answer is none of these, despite popular myth to the contrary .....

Coastal Notes 7 November 2006
Remembrance Sunday approaches, when the many men and women who have died in the name of our country come into our thoughts and we give thanks for their sacrifice. It seems an appropriate time to be reminded of a local casualty of war.  As far as we are aware, the only Stonehaven man to die on active duty in Stonehaven in World War 2 has been forgotten .....

Coastal Notes 18 October 2006
Hear the word skyscraper and what springs to mind?  Most likely tall modern buildings epitomised by the skyline of Manhattan or Taiwan's Taipei 101. Or what about moonraker?  James Bond?  Both terms actually originate in our maritime past .....

Coastal Notes 3 October 2006
"The harbour trustees, being determined to use every means for bringing the Guilty Persons to Punishment, hereby, with the sanction of the Magistrates, offer a Reward of Three Guineas to any person who, within a month, shall give such information as may lead to the discovery and apprehension of the Offenders...." This reward poster appeared in Stonehaven in the summer of 1837......

Coastal Notes 20 September 2006
It was a beautiful Sabbath morning in the autumn of 1577...
This is the opening line of a poem marking a great disaster to hit the Dunbar area.  Despite the pleas of Reverend Andrew Simpson not to set sail on the Sabbath, the local herring fleet along with many boats from the south and the north, and also from the coast of Holland put to sea from Dunbar. By evening the wrecks of nearly two hundred boats were drifting among the rocks.....

Coastal Notes 6 September 2006
Call 999 and one of the options available will be the Coastguard.  The Coastguard is the first point of call for all maritime incidents and co-ordinates the rescue services attending ....

Coastal Notes 22 August 2006
We take the sea on our doorstep for granted; we use it as a playground, a work place, a dumping ground, and a transport system, yet scientists know more about the far side of the moon than what goes on under the water. At the deepest point in the ocean the pressure is more than 8 tons per square inch, or the equivalent of one person trying to support 50 jumbo jets ...

Coastal Notes 8 August 2006
Pirates are all the rage just now thanks to Hollywood blockbusters, but what is their real story?   Are they just glorified figments of the screen writer's imagination or is there truth in the legends? ....

Coastal Notes 25 July 2006
Sunday was a day to remember; the sun shone all day, the crowds turned out in force and MRI had the best Festival to date, raising in excess of £6,000.  The parade, headed up by Newtonhill Pipe Band took the usual course down the High Street.  Vikings in full costume, Viking Princesses, the SAR Team, a variety of dogs - some pulling carts, others in high viz jackets - all closely followed by the Coastguard, made for a really colourful start to the event .....

Coastal Notes 11 July 2006
Eagle eyed visitors to the harbour may have noticed that MRI 42, the biggest of the lifeboats, is missing.  No, she hasn’t gone for good: she been away for her 5-year hull and machinery survey.  It was intended that this would be done at the Amble Boatyard, where she was originally re-built for MRI, but fate had other ideas.  About 30 miles off the Firth of Forth a thrust bearing on the starboard gearbox failed ..... 

Coastal Notes 27 June 2006
Most people may well be aware that there are Vikings coming to this year’s Harbour Festival on July 23rd. They will be travelling down from Shetland with all their special costumes to add colour and spectacle to the day. The planning for the Festival is now well in hand with just a little over three weeks to go .....

Coastal Notes 13 June 2006
Last week ‘Elektra’ a 21’ sailing boat slipped quietly into Stonehaven harbour.  Nothing unusual about that, you might say, yachts arrive all the time at this time of year.  But, this one was a little bit special.  On board was Katie Miller, a 19 year old student, following Dame Ellen MacArthur’s solo circumnavigation of the British Isles, which took place 10 years ago.  Katie is following Ellen’s route, stopping at the harbours Ellen visited .....

Coastal Notes 31 May 2006

Lighthouses still play a crucial role in shipping safety, in spite of being one of the oldest safety systems around.  The Egyptians certainly had lighthouses 300 years BC, but it has been strongly argued that the Phoenicians developed a chain of them in the Mediterranean a thousand years earlier than that .....

Coastal Notes 17 May 2006
It was a miserable day in Edinburgh for the BUPA Great Edinburgh Run, yet more than 8,000 people turned up ready to do their stuff......... All MRI’s runners completed the run in good time, raising around £1,600, which will go towards the upkeep of the lifeboats.  Thanks to all who ran and to their sponsors .....

Coastal Notes 3 May 2006
This Sunday, 7 May, fourteen runners from Stonehaven, Aberdeen and Edinburgh will take part in the BUPA Great Edinburgh 10k, raising funds for MRI.  They’ll join thousands of other keen runners taking to the Edinburgh streets. See www.greatrun.org for more details ....

Coastal Notes 19 April 2006
Waves pounding over the breakwater at Stonehaven harbour are a common and fascinating sight, demonstrating vividly the power of the sea.  However, this is small fry compared to waves hitting west coast cliffs.  Residents living close to the cliffs in places such as Orkney and Shetland can feel the impact in their homes as huge storm waves batter the coast .....

Coastal Notes 5 April 2006
We’ve all heard the expression ‘There’s plenty more fish in the sea’ after suffering a set back or a disappointment.  Indeed there are multitudes of fish out there, but just as in life, we need to be careful which ones we choose to get up close to.  There are fish that can kill, maim, poison, stab, electrocute, eat or bite the unsuspecting ......

Coastal Notes - 22 March 2006
Major deep space exploration programmes could lead one to believe that we have found everything there is to be found here on Earth, and that the new frontiers are all ‘out there’.  Yet the oceans continue to dish up new and vast arenas of exploration, surprising and intriguing us with their strange and "alien" landscapes....

Coastal Notes - 7 March 2006
Despite recent snowstorms, spring really is on its way.  Birds are beginning to pair up and very soon the cliffs at Fowlsheugh will be ringing to the cries of nesting sea birds.  Occupying the ‘penthouse suite’ at the highest point of the cliffs will be the fulmars.....

Coastal Notes - 21 February 2006
This week the RNLI announced that 2005 was its busiest year ever.  The 52 Scottish RNLI lifeboats launched a total of 1,016 times, rescuing 908 people.  Taking Britain as a whole, RNLI lifeboats launched 8,273 times, which comes down to a staggering 22 times every day of the year.  Given such numbers, it would be easy to believe that this was the full picture of maritime rescue and that there couldn’t be even more incidents; yet in fact, many more rescues were carried out by other charitable rescue organisations all round the coast.....

Coastal Notes - 6 February 2006

Last week’s sinking of the ferry in the Red Sea with the loss of up to 1,000 lives is a sobering reminder that the sea always has to be treated with respect.  Each of those lost lives means the loss of a family member, a breadwinner, a friend ....

Coastal Notes - 25 January 2006

It’s unclear exactly when man first took to the water in a boat, but 10,000-year-old rock paintings appear to show a skin boat, built around a frame.  Skin boats are still around today – coracles, curraghs and kayaks are all examples of working skin boats ....

Coastal Notes - 10 January 2006

"If a man is in need of rescue, an airplane can come in and throw flowers on him, and that's just about all.  But a direct lift aircraft could come in and save his life."  Over the past few weeks, MRI has been taking part in a series of helicopter training exercises....

Coastal Notes - 14 December 05

Although MRI will be closed over Christmas and New Year, the Search and Rescue service never shuts down and team members will be just as ready to respond as at any other season.  In the past we’ve been called out on both Christmas and New Year’s Day.  ...

 

[To see Coastal Notes for 2008, click here.]
[To see Coastal Notes for 2007, click here.]
[To see Coastal Notes for 2005, click here.]
[To see Coastal Notes for 2004 and 2003, click here.]

 

Page updated: 16 April, 2008

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