On Thursday at 6pm, 40 RNLI members took it in turns to do a 20 minute shift on the indoors rowing machine at Poole Lifeboat Station.
Paul Taylor, a station mechanic at Poole said: “I am doing the second stint so I am on at 6.20pm and again at 2.20am in the morning. There are five of us who are going to be doing the graveyard shift from midnight. I am doing three to four 20 minute slots, so no sleep for me tonight.
“No I haven’t been exercising or practicing, it’s my yearly exercise.”
The rowers finished the “rowathon” at 6pm on Friday; Dave Williams from the maintenance department completed the final 20 minute stint.
“This is the fourth year that I have done the rowathon, so far I have raised £25, but last year I raised £300.”
In 24 hours the RNLI team rowed just under 200 miles.
In Bournemouth, Dorset’s RNLI lifeguards took part in the annual “swim in our speedios” event at Boscombe beach on Friday.
The lifeguards ran into the icy cold waters where they all took part in a traditional short sea swim.
The RNLI’s SOS Day is the charities national fundraiser day. This year the funds raised will go towards providing new state-of-the-art lifejackets for all the lifeguards that volunteer at the 35 lifeboat stations in the South-West, including Poole Lifeboat Station.
Photos courtesy of Jason Kelly
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