Another String to Our Bow by Peter Lockwood September 2011
Over the past month several of us have had the opportunity to crew on Vigilant, the Harbour Patrol launch as the Senior Patrol Officer! Duties included keeping a sharp lookout, speaking to occasional boats re passes, speeding or whatever, and keeping the log. It was a good experience and super way to spend a nice sunny afternoon!
One of my days was pretty quiet and I think we only went fast once to blow out the cobwebs but on other days we visited marinas and havens we do not normally enter, covered all of the main channels of the harbour and had some interesting high speed runs when sighting a speeding launch, or answering a call from Port Control. One of these concerned a small boat fishing right under the bow of Contentin within ten minutes of her sailing.
Apart from providing a useful service to the Harbour Master when needed it was a chance to see how Vigilant operates and observe the way the Cox deals with any problem boats he comes across.