Doug Grant receives his 40 years service medal.
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00:00My father and my grandfather joined the R&I down in a place called Selsey Bill, down in West Sussex.
00:06I joined in 1984.
00:09The reason why I joined is because when I was about 13,
00:15I remember going down and seeing a ship, half submerged ship,
00:20just off of Selsey, which my father had been at, and took off 12 people.
00:26I joined the station as my father's coxswain,
00:31continued up and became a mechanic, also became a helm on the D-class.
00:37I couldn't think how many rescues I've done over the years.
00:40It's a part of life for me. I really have enjoyed it.
00:44I do think the R&I is a family.
00:47We've got lots of good friends, lots of family friends.
00:49I joined here and started as crew, and worked my way up to now helm,
00:55and I'm now a station mechanic.
00:57I feel the R&I is very family friendly, and I feel that we go out as a group on the boat.
01:07It's all down to team, and we do all work together.
01:13I know that they always say that one person should be in charge,
01:16but I find that looking after your friends and your colleagues on the boat
01:23has that kind of warm sensation that we're together,
01:28and we're working together to achieve rescuing people.
01:31Yeah, there is one thing. It is a big commitment for family life.
01:35That is one thing.
01:37But again, my wife, she's now on the volunteer side of things,
01:41of fundraising, and her friends.
01:44That's what I'm saying. It is a family thing. R&I is a family thing.
01:48It's been going on for nearly 200 years.
01:52There's things where the wives and daughters pushing lifeboats down back in the 1950s.
02:01It's a good thing for Inverness, for North Keswick.
02:07We do a lot of fundraising.
02:09Yeah, there's a few.
02:11I always remember one of my first jobs as a helm, rescuing a dog.
02:16Basically, I got swept out at a place called Packham Harbour.
02:20I remember we had to go out and rescue this dog.
02:23The most important thing about it, because every dog lot was the same,
02:27if your dog gets hit difficultly, the owner will try and rescue the dog.
02:31I always remember my first shout was, go and rescue a dog.
02:34Yeah, if we're going out in severe weather,
02:37I've done that on the old time-class lifeboat in Stormforce 11.
02:42I've also been here in quite challenging conditions.
02:47Yeah, I find I enjoy myself.
02:52Yeah, I mean, we have saved a few lives over the years.
02:56It comes natural to me.
02:58It's just one of those things you just automatically go into saving someone's life.
03:05You're just like a normal nurse or a paramedic in an ambulance.
03:09You automatically just switch and you know you've got someone's life in your own hands.
03:14And you just try your hardest to save them.
03:17And we've done some fantastic jobs here over the years.
03:20In life, don't we all make wrong decisions?
03:23I find everybody makes the wrong decision.
03:25Unfortunately, that is the nature of life.
03:27I mean, I've made the wrong decisions in my time.
03:30I've been rescued a few times.
03:32I'm a commercial fisherman.
03:33I broke down.
03:34People come and pick me up.
03:36We all have bad days, I find.
03:39It's human nature.
03:41And that's the way it is.
03:45We'll always try and help someone.
03:48Even if they make the simplest mistakes, it's a bad day.
03:52This is embarrassing.
03:54I always remember speaking to the Coast Guard and saying,
03:55this is going to be embarrassing.
03:57But at the end of the day, there's nothing much you can do.
04:00And this is what happens.
04:01I need a tow home.
04:02I need a tow home.
04:03I'm a commercial fisherman.
04:05And I also work at the Inverness Port Authority.
04:07So yeah, these things happen.
04:08And again, lucky they're there.
04:10That's what they're there for.
04:12Yes, I can continue as a mechanic here.
04:14I can continue on to retirement age of 67.
04:17May not continue doing helm sort of things for a little while.
04:21I'm thinking about giving other helms a chance.
04:24Stay as crew and stay as mechanic.
04:26I've done 40 years.
04:28Enjoyable time on the boat.
04:29But obviously stay in the background as a mechanic and a crew.