West Wight Life: Needles Coastguard & MV Patricia

This is The Needles Coastguard Station. It had been closed for a number of years, but reopened in August 2012 manned by volunteers. Since then it has already drawn attention to two ships in trouble, allowing an early rescue.

A few days ago I put a photo of the MV Patricia on this blog. In the video sequence below you can see this Trinity House ship servicing the Western Buoy just past The Needles. The surf of the waves a little way further back marks the edge of the shingle bank. All commercial ships have to pass between the buoy and the shingle and can only be guided in if one of the crew has a pilot's licence for this particular area, otherwise they have to approach Southampton & Portsmouth from the eastern side of the island.

Earlier today the Keeper & 2 volunteers in the station watched a Stoat catch a rabbit on the grass in front of the station!