Jonathan Jones

The RNLI is an outstanding organisation with incredible values and support. I am truly very proud to be part of the team. I have been very fortunate to have been on the sea most of my life and wanted to help wherever possible in island life. I live very close to St Catherine’s Lifeboat Station so I am dependable, reliable to help save lives at sea. The charity has a huge volunteer team from all walks of life – a great family to be part of. I thought I had good sea knowledge but the training programme made me very aware of my shortcomings and the depth of knowledge and training is very in depth with the crew's safety paramount. My first shout was on 16th December 2018 for a kayaker in the water off Gorey who had equipment failure, had been in the water for 45 minutes and with an easterly wind blowing force 7. One of the first things you are trained in the RNLI is on your SAR unit layout, and all about your Personal Protective Equipment and preparing the SAR unit to go to sea. I arrived at the station first and opened the station and started preparing the boat to go to sea. Although I did not crew the boat that day, my training had already paid off, saving vital minutes in getting to the casualty and rescuing him.