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As we put the 2002 summer season behind us we look back with a sense of achievement at the way the station has operated since opening in March 2002. The watch has been manned on a daily basis by a dedicated team, our thanks to them. There have been only five occasions when we were unable to staff, my thanks to Dave our watch co-ordinater for his efforts, his is not the easiest of jobs. Our presence has been justified already having co-operated with the Coastguard on several occasions.
Our thanks to all who have helped and supported us during our efforts to set up the station; we look forward to your continued support through our "Friends of Stepper" scheme, members will receive regular up dates on station progress and items of interest through our quarterly Magazine. All are welcome to visit Stepper Point look out, where they can experience at first hand, what watch keeping duties at Stepper Point are all about.
It is fantastic the way our presence is being acknowledged by passing walkers, many call to see what we are all about, this is verified by the comments in our visitors book. A number of these visitors have taken away forms and now subscribe to Friends of Stepper.
Whilst on duty recently in the lookout I was visited by the crew of a yacht that was storm bound in Port Quinn Bay waiting for favourable conditions to enable him to enter the inner harbour at Padstow. They were most impressed by our facilities and interested to find out more about the NCI. Another visitor turned out to be a diver from Eastbourne, he and his colleagues commented that they had no such facilities in their area and on returning home they were going to investigate the possibilities of starting up an NCI station in that area.
Our station is being put on the map with the distribution of our cards to yacht owners and local fishermen; these give our grid ref and telephone number and the hours of opening. We have an agreement with the Padstow and Rock Lifeboat stations in that, we will be prepared to man the station at any time should they be called for emergency rescue duties or exercises.
Training is an ongoing entity. As new watch keepers join us they are being placed with a qualified watch keeper to bring them up to the basic level required. It is anticipated that our training will be reviewed at a later date to include in-depth chart work, radio procedures, radar training and other necessary subjects to bring us to a standard required to enable us to apply for DFS (Declared Facility Status)
We are still in need of items within the lookout, at this stage we are operating without radar which we consider would be a necessity during bad weather, the radio scanner we are at present using is limited in it's operational coverage as we have found to our cost, when frequencies are changed we do not have the ability to receive the new transmissions. These are areas in which we would appreciate some form of sponsorship, if you think you may be able to help or know of a company that would be prepared to supply any of these items please contact us.
I am grateful to our team of dedicated watch keepers for the way they have turned out in all weathers, but we have yet to face the rigours of the winter ahead, we are really in need of foul weather clothing as it is not very comfortable to have to do a watch with water running out of our boots.
Our station is the ideal place to watch the wild life on the headland, you will find on a later page of this newsletter a list of the birds and also the more rare things that have been seen. In recent weeks we have been visited by several pods of dolphins and on more than one occasion basking shark have paid fleeting visits.
During the years that I was stationed at Stepper point from 1973 through to 1990 there were several casualties which occurred within the area, since the closure in 1990 there have been at least 10 lives lost within sight of our station, one can see there is a definite need for our vigilant watch at the lookout. See more in the Incident Log.
We are fortunate to have a web master within our group and are indebted to him for putting Stepper Point on the world wide web service, our site is www.stepper-point.co.uk . Why not visit the site and sign in on the guest page. Also there are several interesting links for you to open and visit, i.e. Padstow Harbour for a wealth of information, Padstow Obby -Oss all about our pagan festival, Padstow Art Group, Padstow Museum plus other useful links.
Some members of "Friends of Stepper" have visited us at the coffee mornings, lending a hand at tea making, coffee brewing after which they go on to the look out and observe our watch keepers at work. One of our members Bob Jones came down from Lincolnshire especially to lend a hand at the coffee morning and ended up spending his visit undergoing training with watch keeper Ian Kendall, since then he has undertaken more training and now performs watches during his visits. Thanks Bob for all your help. (We think Bob may emigrate to Padstow with his wife)
We are indebted to Trevor Evans for his help in matters building at the lookout, with his help the area around the watch house has now been made safer for staff.
I hope will enjoy browsing the newsletter, if you would like to send any appropriate articles for inclusion in future publications be our guest.
Derek Lindsey (Station Manager) Back to topWhen I undertook to become the treasurer of our station, I am not sure that I had foreseen the enormous amount of work the position would entail, not that I am complaining, I have enjoyed every task that it has thrown at me and what's more I am still thriving on it.
Today our financial position is much improved on those early days when we were wondering where the money was to come from.
At this point I must thank Ted Gregory our Secretary for his efforts in researching and procuring several grants which have enabled us to reach most of our objectives.
We have had a good response to our Friends of Stepper scheme and this is gathering pace albeit slowly, during the period since becoming operational in late March 2002 we have recruited a number of subscribing friends from places as far apart as Wales to East Anglia and as far north as Lincolnshire, I eagerly await the arrival of the postman each morning this brings one or two new contacts each week, some pay by cheque but there is a tendency for more people to subscribe by direct debit.
Our collection box at the lookout is providing a small but steady income.
We still have a few items of equipment that have to be obtained when finance permits, and of course we must look forward to maintaining an income to cover our running costs which we estimate could be up to £2000 per annum.
Recently we have had some generous bequests from relatives of people who knew and loved the Stepper Point area.
Again thank you all for your support.
George Barnes (Hon Treasurer) Back to top| Watch-keepers | 21 |
| Supporters | 14 |
| Trainee watch-keepers | 9 |
| Fundraisers | 8 |
| Friends of Stepper | 30 |
Recruiting is an ongoing challenge and hopefully our target of 40 watch-keepers will soon be achieved.
We have recently been joined by Canon Michael Fisher , David Glover, Michael Humphreys, Martin Bishop, Derek Munson, Jon Broomhead, John Holmes, & Ron White along with Douglas Degnin who was until recently a watch keeper at NCI St. Ives. To all these new watch keepers we extend a warm welcome.
Most watches are covered with a single qualified watch-keeper; this situation will of course change as more volunteers qualify. The ideal scenario will be when we have enough qualified watch keepers to enable us to set two person watches.
I am always pleased to receive telephone calls regarding National Coastwatch Institution and will forward Volunteer Application Forms to anyone wishing to join us at Stepper Point.
David Helyar (Membership Secretary) Back to topWe are delighted to report that three local men, Tim Tutton, Sid Porter & James Hope have joined us as watch-keepers setting several watches at Stepper Point whilst on leave from the merchant navy. Their local knowledge and expertise has greatly enhanced our professional credibility, they bring with them the latest knowledge of maritime matters.
Bob Jones travels from Fulbeck, near Grantham, Lincolnshire to Padstow regularly and now spends some of his time helping with our coffee mornings and watch keeping. Well Done Bob and thank you for all you have done.
What can I say about the success of the Watch-keeping Bill itself?
The commitment, loyalty and enthusiasm since opening has been overwhelming. Most watch-keepers now contact me to book their watches, this enables me to keep an accurate, up to date record of duties on a day-to-day basis. This is an important factor to enable us to maintain an efficient watch rota. Sometimes due to various circumstances, watches have to be rearranged at short notice, it is occasionally difficult to find substitutes, and this is where Derek, George and myself fill in.
However, there are a number of watch-keepers who have offered to fill vacant slots at very short notice, to them we are extremely grateful. Overall all, the system is operating well.
To all our watch-keepers may I extend my thanks for their support these past few months?
David Helyar (Watch Co-ordinator) Back to top"Go get us some money boy," said Derek. That was July 2001, and spoken to someone who had never done any form of charity fund raising in his life before. So naively I searched at the end of a few rainbows, kept turning over the coins in my pockets, and even started upturning stones in likely places. But fortunately I did eventually come across some gems, in a most unexpected place the library.! There I found reference works on who had money to give away and nearly as good, the organisations that existed to help poor souls like me to get one's hands on it.
I was introduced to a confusing array of community development organisations, social economy improvers, voluntary service collectives and various statutory bodies; boy, was I out of my depth? But bless them all; they politely listened, suggested another organisation, which was probably more appropriate than they were, and passed me on. So it went on, and I swear I went round in circles, but gradually it fell into place. I made contacts; nine grant funders accepted funding applications, now that in itself was an achievement because most grant funders turned me away at the outset.! Of the nine grant funders, two turned us down, and the rest paid up.
The contacts - North Cornwall Volunteers Bureau, NCDC Community Development Officer and NCDC Beach Safety Officer -supported some of our successful applications, and I am sure their support contributed to our financial success.
We owe a lot of favours to a lot of good people. Firstly, there is the band of willing heroes who kindly give their time each month raising money at our coffee mornings. There are the unsung persons who spend money at these events. There are yet others who help our cause in practical ways. Then there are the sponsors who gave us sums of money. We have in, effect, accepted the Queen's Shilling. We have taken money, and now we must deliver the goods. To finish the lookout refurbishment is now no problem, but we are now morally committed to manning a daily lookout roster, after all, our promise was to improve safety for all users of the Camel Estuary, I think in all fairness we can say, we have achieved that!
So far our principle financial sponsors are: Awards For All, J.Bealing (Builders), Alex Bradley Shipyard (Padstow), Carlton Broadcasting, Major R. Cleave, The Community Champions Fund, Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Fund, Mr. Ian Kendall, The Measures Trust, Mr. B Morse, NCDC, Padstow Daymark Preservation Society, Padstow Harbour Commissioners, Padstow Old Cornwall Society, Padstow Rotarians, Padstow Town Council, T J Press International, The Quinnin Trust, Raleigh International, RAOB Lodge (St. Merryn), Mrs. R Reid, (Mr. C Reid) Royal British Legion (Padstow Branch), Techcom Marine (Padstow) US Navy/JMF (St Mawgan) and Western Power Distribution.
It's an impressive list, so please do not let them down
Ted Gregory Back to topSince changing hands in 2001, the NCI Website has been extensively changed and updated. The original site had not been kept up to date for some considerable time, some parts were unfinished and others were non-operational.
The site was given a completely new look, including redrawn logos and a standard layout and colour scheme for all pages.
Every station has its own page containing a photograph and various details, including contact information. Some stations have sent in write-ups, which are also on these pages. A national coverage map shows the location of NCI stations in various areas of the UK. In the future it is hoped to show the boundaries of each NCI region on this map. The station directory has a complete listing of all stations, grouped into the main NCI regions.
One of the new features of the site is the 'Station Finder.' This lets users search for a station based on keywords. For example, a person could enter 'Cornwall' to search for all NCI stations in our county. A long article about the history of the National Coastwatch Institution, up to January 2000, is also on the site. These articles were written by our own Regional Manager, Peter Waters, and the National Public Relations Officer Tony King.
Ian & David Kendall (Webmasters of www.nci.org.uk) Back to topWe are indebted to our fundraisers who under the watchful eye of Mandy, support us at our open days and coffee mornings, also to the spouses of some of our watch keepers who have given home made cakes etc and worked in the galley.
We must thank Mrs Shaw (Auntie Bett) and the members of the Seniors Citizens club who have given so generously with prizes for the Tombola stalls, which have raised over £200.
It is nice to welcome back Rosemary and Susie after their illnesses, also our thanks to little Mary, big Mary, Mabel and Dora for their continued support. Also a big thank you to Doris Thurley our nonagenarian for her generous cooking for open days.
Our open days at the Memorial Hall South Quay Padstow have been reasonably successful raising much needed funds to meet the day to day running expenses incurred by the station. Further coffee mornings will be arranged for the winter months these will be announced soon.
Next year we will be organising flag days at various locations, a fun evening at Well Park Hotel Trevone, for these events to be successful we need helpers to organise them. A little bird also tells us there will be a local rampage around the town by some well known local entertainers I wonder who?
Back to topWe are indebted to the harbour master Captain Trevor Platt and the Commissioners of the port of Padstow for his letter of support to Stepper Point. We hope to repay them and the people of Padstow in a special way very soon, with the coming of the awaited weather station monitoring devices, the wind speed and direction device will transmit a real time weather report to the harbour office, this will enable mariners to access the conditions at Stepper Point before leaving harbour.
A letter from the Association of Newquay Fishermen:
Dear Sir
I would like to add the support of the Newquay Fishermen to the re-opening of Stepper Point as a visual watch lookout Station.
As a fisherman myself with some forty years experience I have fished all round the Cornish Coast including some twelve years from the port of Padstow. I know what it means to have someone on shore able to provide emergency backup.
The North Coast of Cornwall is notoriously dangerous, and to add to the problems faced by mariners using this stretch of water there is no deep water harbours between Penzance and Milford Haven.
Padstow offers the only safe haven, but one has to negotiate the treacherous doom bar first. This could be made easier with the help of people onshore to offer advice and safety watch in both summer and winter.
Therefore, my association would like to offer its full support for the re-opening of Stepper Point lookout
Yours sincerely
M L Burt Secretary
Radio Cornwall have been very interested in our station in that we have been featured in various broadcasts in the last 2 years.
During the summer Chris Blount's afternoon programme contacted the NCI stations around the coast of Cornwall getting the latest information. Our turn came around about once a fortnight this gave us the opportunity to make the public aware of our presence.
Back to topSince opening at Easter 2002 the watch has co-operated with HM Coastguard Falmouth on several occasions, a brief resume as follows
These extracts are from our records kept at Stepper Point and can occur at any time.
Derek Lindsey (Station Manager) Back to topThis may seem a strange title but it is something we are proud of.
When we first gave thought to the restoration of the station we realised that apart from the structural rebuild, the very location of the look out would present us with the problem of how do we power our equipment? The options were mains electricity supply, diesel generator or wind power.
Mains supply electricity would have been the desired option, this would have given us no restriction on the amount of power we had available but when we were quoted a sum of £40,000 plus for installation of an underground cable, plus the legal costs of wayleaves and the annual running cost, it had to be ruled out.
The second option was a diesel generator, this was ruled out on the difficulty of getting supplies of fuel to the site, storage and ongoing maintenance plus it would have to be placed under the care of a qualified operative.
We were now down to making use of the one thing that we do have an abundant supply of, wind of course. There is hardly a day goes by when we don't have wind speeds in excess of 4m/s, the operating point at which the turbine starts to supply current.
The main problem is, that the supply is 12 volt and that rather limits the equipment that we can use. We opted for a small wind turbine capable of supplying 12-15 volts at 10 amps and heavy duty deep cycle gel batteries giving us a reserve of 440 amp/hrs, this will enable us to operate for up to 10 days should there be no wind (extremely unlikely). The wind turbine has the capability to furl its self when wind speeds reach 16 m/s.
As a secondary backup we have a solar panel kindly donated by Devon Renewable Energy of Bideford, this is coupled to the control system and is capable of trickle charging the batteries during calm periods it works at low light levels so we do not have a problem.
The truth of the matter is the system spends probably 80% of it time dumping excess power in to the heat sink. We even have a 12v kettle, a fan and a heater for the comfort of the watch keepers.
We obviously needed a substantial mast on which to mount the generator, this came in the form of a redundant 6.1m electric lamp standard, this came from a man who knows a man, it was collected for us by some of the lifeboat crew who had the necessary transport. Our grateful thanks to Alex Bradley and Adrian Hope of Techcom at the shipyard in Padstow who carried out the necessary modifications.
At this time we are the only NCI station in the Britain to have a wind turbine supply, and the great beauty of it is: WIND is FREE!
Our other green project was to obtain a self composting toilet facility, this was imported from Canada through Devon Renewables, being specialist equipment it was hugely expensive. We even have our own toilet mechanic but I am not going to divulge his name.
George Barnes (Deputy Station Manager) Back to topI was brought up on the shores of Mount's Bay, within sight and sound of the sea, but the nearest I got to a career on it was in the early 1970's, when I was padre to the Land's End District of Trinity House. In those days, you will remember, they had men, rather than computers, on the lighthouses and lightships, and it was my duty to visit them and the crew of the THV Stella, then based in Penzance. The only seaman's skills required of me, however, were to let myself be hoisted up and down in a breech's buoy, and tackle a rope ladder. The breech's buoy was easy (if occasionally terrifying) but the rope ladder, especially in a heavy sea, was often difficult and always terrifying!
When my wife and I retired to Trevone two years ago, we heard about the proposed reopening of Stepper Point, and I said I would be interested in helping in some way, but it took a conversation with one of the existing watch keepers to get me to act. And so I found myself at Stepper Point as a trainee.
My first impression was of the friendliness and helpfulness of the team - no hint of "here's a new boy, lets give him a hard time!" Rather the opposite, everyone has gone out of their way to make me welcome and show me the ropes, so to speak. I wondered if my lack of practical experience would make it difficult to do what was required, but soon discovered that most of the duties were based on common sense. The clearly set out training papers that I was given were also very helpful. But it was, as in most jobs, what one learnt from those already doing the job that really counted.
I still have much to learn, but can truly say that I have enjoyed every minute of my training so far - even those two watches when the weather was so thick that we could not see out of the lookout! I look forward to completing it and joining the team.
Michael Fisher Back to topWe have logged a very large number of visiting yachts, cruisers, who make their annual pilgrimage to Padstow from the yacht clubs along the coast of South Wales & the Severn estuary. (The Welsh Navy)
Also of interest the visit of a early 19th century Lowestoft Trawler LT 1110 which fished out of Padstow in the 1920's
One unusual logging a replica of a 14th century Norwegian Sboring Northlands Boat. Built in 1975 she was on passage to France from The Isle of Man when she had to call at Padstow for repairs to her rudder. Talking to Sven the mate he said she is a remarkable boat, very stable and has a speed of 16 knots.
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