In 1994 when two fishermen lost their lives off the Cornish coast near to a recently closed Coastguard lookout, local people decided to open and restore the visual watch. When the first station was opened at Bass Point on the Lizard, National Coastwatch Institution (NCI) was born.
So this month the NCI celebrates its 30th anniversary. A commemorative flag has been produced showing all the names of the 60 stations around the coastline of the UK.
The flag will be transported from the farthest North West station (Fleetwood NCI), anticlockwise around the coast to the farthest North East station (Filey NCI) a 2,000 mile coastal relay, visiting every station along the way. Boscastle NCI will receive the flag from Minehead NCI on Tuesday 25th June and deliver it to Stepper Point NCI in Padstow in Wednesday 26th June.
At each station, the volunteer watchkeepers who help save lives around the coast have been coming up with innovative ways to pass the flag on to the waiting crews at their neighbouring station. The 5ft x 3ft flag will be electronically tagged and relayed using many different types of transport including boats and ferries, tractor and trailer, horse and cart, classic cars and by walking and running.
Boscastle NCI is very grateful for support from the Boscastle & Crackington Gig Club and Port Isaac RNLI who have both kindly agreed to support our leg of the relay.
The flag will be walked down from the lookout, high on the Willapark headland. On reaching the harbour it will be passed to the Boscastle & Crackington Gig Club who will row the flag out of the harbour towards Long Island. A local boat from Boscastle Harbour will then take the flag to Padstow Bay where the Inshore Waters Lifeboat from Port Isaac RNLI will collect the flag and conduct a shore landing at Hawker’s Cove where the flag will be passed to our colleagues at Stepper Point NCI.
Due to the nature of the relay it is highly weather dependent and needs good weather and calm seas. We are all keeping our fingers crossed.
We hope to bring you pictures from the relay in the next edition of Boscastle Sound.
