Right on cue the weather decided to ‘play nice’ and the sun shone for the annual Emergency Services Day held at the Varne Boat Club and Littlestone Lifeboat station.
With a steady flow of happy families arriving throughout the day, who were treated to a display of emergency services vehicles being represented by organisation’s such as Kent Police, Kent Ambulance, Kent Fire and Rescue, the Coastguard and of course Lifeboats from both Littlestone and Dungeness.
Also taking part in the day was the new search and rescue helicopter based at Lydd who did a flypast waving to the crowds.
Another aerial treat was unfortunately a little late in the day for many who may have left, but the sound of the mighty Rolls Royce Merlin engines was heard as a Hurricane and Spitfire being flown by Wing Commander Justin Helliwell and Squadron Leader Mark Discombe from of The Battle of Britain memorial flight who did a low level fly past with a customary ‘wiggle of the wings’ to wave goodbye to round the day off.
The crowds were kept informed of events from the ‘control tower’ situated by the Lifeboat Launching ramp by Radio Kent presenter and lifeboat Press officer, Dominic King and Littlestone crew member Matt Crittenden who not only informed the public what was going on, but clearly seemed to be enjoying themselves with spontaneous Pirate Impressions.
However the star attraction of the day was undoubtedly the launching of the Littlestone Lifeboat “Fred Clark” and the attendance of Dungeness Lifeboat “The Morrell” with both boats demonstrating the versatility of both of the stae of the art rescue boats.
The event raised over £5.500 which goes towards the running of the Lifeboat and the RNLI and according to the stations facebook page, plans are already being made for next years event