Andy Griffey

Having been on, in or under the water both professionally and as a hobby for most of my life I wanted to use my experiences to give something back to the community. Volunteering for the RNLI gives you a sense of being in an extended family and camaraderie that you don’t get in many other places. When you start your time with the RNLI, no matter if it is operational crew or fundraising crew, you can step into a room full of people you don’t know and are made to feel welcome. You can travel to the UK for training in Poole or just around the country, step into any RNLI station, mention you are crew and instantly there is a sense of friendship with stories and experiences to be shared. My very first shout was when I was about 17/18 years old and I was on St Catherine’s Lifeboat for a few years before leaving the Island to work. I was to rescue a small Orkney type boat coming back from the Ecrehous in a F5-6 wind that had lost its front screen and had waves coming over the bow and into the small cabin cuddly and flooding them. We arrived on scene after a very bumpy trip out and I was put onto the vessel. We started our salvage pump to get rid of the water and waited for the St Helier All Weather Boat to arrive. The family, including a young child was transferred to the St Helier boat and we stayed onboard the casualty vessel with our pumps until we reached the safety of St Catherine's. An experience I’ll never forget.