End of An Era

Tonight was the retirement do for Tommy Cocking who retired as Coxswain of the St Ives Lifeboat in July see here for when he retired.

It was a BIG do - 150 or so people from all over the country & Ireland, including Michael Vlasto OBE (pictured - great lighting behind the RNLI flag) the Operations Director of the RNLI who made a special point of coming along & talking about Tommy (it was really something to get a big chief of the RNLI coming along). The new Coxwain Paul Whiston (Wiz) also gave a fantastic speach about Tommy, including some very emotional bits about the ups and downs of what Tommy went through in his 38 years with the RNLI, including when a St Ives Fishing Boat the Gorah Lass went down with the loss of all hands, as well as the other side of the coin when a young boy was lost at sea near Hayle Bar, and half an hour later the Lifeboat found and saved him.

A great evening.

I was supposed to be at a St Ives September Festival gig to see Adrian Edmondson and the Bad Shepherds, but wanted to stay at Tommy's do so only caught the last 5 minutes of Ade Edmondson - here. Margaret said they were great.