Ben Ainslie in London

Following his very successful London 2012 Olympics, Gold Medallist Ben Ainslie had a last sail with his boat Rita around Westminster before embarking on a adventure for the America’s cup.

He stepped on board Lifeboat E-07 – Hurley Burly and met the crew of Tower lifeboat.

Thames Jubilee Pageant

Having spent Saturday afternoon and most of Sunday on a D Class lifeboat as part of the RNLI crew working on the Queen Diamond Jubilee Pageant, I am considering applying for a knee transplant! But the wet weather and leg discomfort could not have dampened our spirits for this once in a lifetime event. I was lucky to be right in the front and the cheers from the crowd made the day even better. Apparently, over 1.2m people lined the banks of the river to celebrate the Queen’s 60 years on the throne.

The Thames medals story

Over the last couple of days, there has been a lot of press coverage of the medals we recovered from the Thames on 20th September. Since this story has generated a large amount of interest, I thought I ought to share some information about the events.

Last week, I had calls from Malcolm Miatt, Lifeboat Operations Manager at Teddington RNLI station where I work as a volunteer helmsman, and John Tough, the Deputy Launching Authority. John is also Commodore of the Dunkirk Little Ships Association, and his grandfather, Doug Tough was heavily involved in Operation Dynamo, which evacuated nearly 350,000 allied troops from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk in May-June 1940. You can read the full story in the Articles section