Rob Archibald’s new job involves plenty of seaside fresh air, though maybe a little too much of it at times. Since May he has been coxswain at Selsey Lifeboat Station, responsible for its two lifeboats – a high- performance all-weather vessel and an inflatable inshore boat – and often personally leading rescue missions.
The job does not come up very often. The previous coxswain, Martin Rudwick, held the post for 22 years and when he retired had clocked up 47 years of service with the RNLI. Rob himself has been with the organization since 1994. Selsey-born and bred, he remembers joining up at the age of just 19.
“At that time the honorary secretary of Selsey Lifeboat Station knew my dad and was looking for crew,” says Rob. “I had always spent a lot of time around the beach, swimming, and diving. I wouldn’t quite say I was told to join but I really wanted to do it anyway – I’d been looking at it for a while. I’d been life-saving with the Royal Life Saving Society and felt as if joining the RNLI was something I should do.”
Rob is able to draw on a wealth of experience in his new role, including mechanical expertise and almost ten years on fishing boats. He works full-time in the lifeboat station on Selsey seafront and is also a standby helmsman and mechanic for other stations throughout south-east England, able to step in to help crews from Southend round to Swanage.
Throughout his day in the boathouse, and after he has gone home too, he remains conscious that his pager could go off at any time, indicating a fresh emergency out at sea.
この記事は Sussex Life の August 2020 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Sussex Life の August 2020 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
TAKE YOUR TIME
Dean Edwards’ new cookbook features delectable recipes that you can slow cook or stick in the oven. Here’s a selection of the best
Decorative art
Not simply functional, treat your walls like an extension of your personality
ON THE FRONT FOOT
The rugby legend took the reins at Sussex County Cricket Club in 2017, rekindling his love for a sport that first won his heart on the village cricket fields of North Yorkshire
NAKED AMBITION
In the 1980s, Christine and Jennifer Binnie partied with Boy George and Marilyn and bared all as performance art collective The Neo-Naturists. Now they are working together to gain the recognition they feel they deserve
ROCKET MAN
Astronaut Tim Peake has come a long way since growing up in Westbourne and attending Chichester High School for Boys: 248 miles above Earth, to be precise. But, he says, life on the International Space Station has a lot in common with family caravanning holidays
Revolution man
Lewes’ most famous resident Thomas Paine may be the greatest propagandist who ever lived. But how did a humble customs and excise officer ignite the touchpaper for revolution in not one but two countries?
THE DIARY
17 exciting things to do this month in East and West Sussex
All in a day's work
Meet Tim Dummer, who has helped keep Midhurst’s Cowdray Estate shipshape for an impressive five decades
My favourite Sussex
Bruce Fogle is an author and a vet with a practice in London who has lived in West Sussex with his wife, the actress Julia Foster, since 1989. He recently became president of RSPCA Mount Noddy near Chichester
10 OF THE BEST Meat-free restaurants in Brighton and Hove
Brighton is often rated one of the most vegan-friendly cities in the UK. What these restaurants prove is that plant-based food doesn’t have to be puritanical – at all of these places you’ll find big flavours and a desire to push the envelope
