Volunteer recruitment
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What is it like to be a Coast Guard volunteer?
It’s a Monday night at 23:47, you’re woken from your sleep by the alert on your Coast Guard pager and the message “Incident callout – report to station” flashes on the display screen. You get dressed and head straight to your Coast Guard station at Red Island, Skerries. There you join the rest of your team mates and you quickly don your search kit. Your Officer in Charge briefs the team on the search details – a large 30 foot yacht has been sighted drifting towards rocks near Skerries. The weather conditions are treacherous, Force 7 Easterly gales, rough seas and driving rain. The Dublin Coast Guard helicopter is being scrambled and will be on scene in 9 minutes to assist with the search, its thermal imaging cameras will be of great benefit in the pitch black of the night. The local lifeboat is also being requested to launch.
The Coast Guard fear that there could be people on board the yacht, which is about to be dashed on the rocks by the raging sea. The Officer in Charge assigns various search and rescue tasks to everyone on the team. You and some of your teammates are tasked to search an area of the shoreline for signs of anyone from the yacht. The Coast Guard 4WD vehicle is already loaded with the full rescue kit and you are driven to the scene under blue lights and sirens, arriving within minutes.
You begin your shoreline search, your powerful torch beam lights up the stricken yacht which is almost on the rocks. You’re looking for any sign that someone could still be on board or desperately trying to swim to shore. You have to shout to your teammate beside you as the deafening roar of the waves drowns everything out. You are armed with rescue throw lines, ready to deploy as a lifeline to anyone who could be in the water trying to make it ashore. You have emergency medical kits to treat them if they do. Suddenly, the Coast Guard Sikorsky helicopter thunders overhead, hovering low and illuminating the entire area with its powerful NightSun searchlight. You’re giving an operations update to your Officer in Charge on your radio, you glance at your watch, it’s midnight, only 13 minutes have passed since you woke up….
Still interested in joining the Skerries team?
From time to time and as vacancies arise, Skerries Coast Guard seek to recruit suitable people to join our team of rescue volunteers. If you are over eighteen, live in the local area and enjoy helping others, then contact us at skerriescoastguard@gmail.com for more information.
Interested in joining another Coast Guard team?
To view the Google Earth locations of one of the 55 other Coast Guard teams in Ireland, click here. If you are interested in joining an Irish Coast Guard unit in another part of the country, please contact admin@irishcoastguard.ie for more details.
