John S. Platt reporting about RNI in 1999

Updated Friday July 16th 1999

Work on Lightvessel 18 continues with a sense of urgency. During the second week of July the vessel was inspected by marine examiners to assess her suitability for life at sea. Whilst being very seaworthy their are several safety issues that need to be addressed before she can be allowed to set sail.

The major concern was the bilge's, which were full of water but with the use of many large buckets and willing volunteers the water has been removed. The other items left to be rectified are minor and will be completed before the next inspection.

After the helideck was mowed and ploughed it was decided to paint it red, the same colour as the rest of the ship. Then 100 litres of green paint arrived, so it was painted green, white paint then arrived so a broad strip of that was painted around the outside. It is rumoured that yellow paint will some descend on the ship so it is reasonable to expect that LV 18 is going to end up the same colours as the MEBOII.

As well as having grass on the helideck, two areas had thriving colonies of weeds. It has therefore been decided to let one of these remain, which will make this station the only one to have a garden on board. The weeds will be watered and fed as time goes on. Perhaps a change to RADIO DANDELION would be appropriate.

The aerial mast has been erected on the helideck but the top section proved to be weak and was bent. The aluminium section was removed and a steel replacement substituted. This exercise presented several problems which were overcome with a bit of lateral thinking.

It proved impossible to lower the mast onto the deck, as the diaphragm fog horn was directly in line with it. Therefore, after lowering it as much as possible it was necessary to provide something for the rigger to stand on to allow him to reach the clamps which needed undoing. After searching the complete ship the only thing we could find was a fridge. This was duly manhandled up to the helideck and the tallest rigger got to work.

Once his arms got tired the next one climbed on the fridge but being shorter than the first rigger found himself needing another 6 inches to reach the clamps, a tool box was placed on the fridge and work continued.

The mast is a magnificent piece of work, in as much as, to do the complete operation only required one single small spanner!

The aerial is rigged and just needs connecting to the transmitter which will arrive a day or two before sailing. The stations name has been chalked on the side of the ship and will be painted next week.

The vessel is now manned 24 hours a day, the first night on board will be remembered for not having anything to boil water to make a cup of tea and not getting a visit from the ghost.

It is expected that the station will be towed out to sea around the 29th July to the WALLET buoy off Holland-on-sea. When at sea the station will have a compliment of 10 or 11 on board. This will be a Master, 2 crewmen, 5/6 DJ's plus additional staff to keep the ship running.

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