St Abbs Lifeboat

23/10/2026

The lull before the storm, Last night our crew were out practicing night navigation and getting hands on with our thermal imagining binoculars critical when searching at night or in low visibility. The boat was then refueled and washed down before storm Austen hit

08/10/2026

Last night our crew made use of the dark night to practice navigation and search patterns also to test out the new night vision binoculars that turn night into day, a very impressive bit of kit.

06/10/2026

Soon.....ooooo waaaaaay too soon....it will be...Chri...no can't say it! Too early. But if you're thinking about it already we have LOADS of gorgeous new stuff in our wee harbour shop that would make LOVELY presents for THAT time of year! Shop is open Fri -Sun during October, but then only Sat - Sun in November so hopefully see you soon.

01/10/2026

Last night's training made best use of the large swell and low light for our crew to practice boat handling and navigation along with some emergency drills. The crew get a lot more out of training in these conditions. The exercise finished as darkness fell and in black out conditions they were tested along with the shore crew on boat familiarisation locating essential pieces of equipment like a tourniquet, Shears, defibrillator. Cutting knife, search light & torches along with other medical equipment.

24/09/2026

Yesterday we welcomed to our lifeboat station Susan Duncan and Andy Greer from HMCG who were here to do our Declared Facility Inspection. This enables a station to be tasked by the Coastguard. Over the next 6 hours all our policies, documents and training records were inspected. The lifeboat was gone over with a fine tooth comb, checking all equipment was in place and in date, culminating with Andy going out on the boat to observe a launch, navigation, search patterns, and man over board drills with some EOP's thrown in. We had very positive feedback from both of them and we are happy to say we passed. We are very grateful for their time and feedback and we will see them again when we visit the operation centre in Aberdeen.

21/09/2026

We were truly honoured to be part of this amazing weekend which played host to a groundbreaking Scottish Women in SAR (search and rescue) event.
Over 40 women from 24 lifeboat stations came together for a full weekend of afloat and shore-based exercises, skills workshops and shared learning to connect, inspire and support women involved in maritime rescue. Host stations RNLI Dunbar Lifeboats and RNLI Eyemouth Lifeboat and our own Independent St Abbs Lifeboat welcomed 42 delegates from around Scotland for exercises on four lifeboats, while inspirational speakers and activity leaders provided workshops onshore.
The initiative is the second of its kind in Scotland, after an inaugural event in Inverness last year. The event was an unforgettable and inspirational experience for our crew members Susan and Julie and will have a huge and positive impact on their lives going forward. This event has brought us all together and enabled our Independent Lifeboat to work more closely and efficiently with our neighbouring RNLI stations and this alone is a hugely positive outcome for all! A big thank you to everyone involved in organising this event and we look forward to being involved in many more.

18/09/2026

A polite request to the tiny minority of people who follow this page just to spread hatred and chose our tenth anniversary post yesterday to do so - please just unfollow us. We are not "traitors", nor are we "rapists". We are an independent lifeboat service run by a fiercely proud coastal community in Scotland. We are not part of the RNLI but we support and stand beside every single RNLI crew member saving lives at sea. We will always reach out to the hand that needs us. One day that could be you.

16/09/2026

Happy tenth anniversary to our Lifeboat, it's crew, it's personnel, it's fundraisers and all it's supporters. Our fabulous crew turned out today to mark the occasion.

The tenth and final post in our serialised anniversary story can be found here https://stabbslifeboat.org.uk/10-remembering-17th-september-2016-the-launch/
commemorating the official launch of our Lifeboat, the Thomas Tunnock, on this day in 2016.

14/09/2026

📟 Call out 📟
Yesterday evening Sunday 13th September around 5:35pm our crew were paged by Aberdeen Coastguard to reports of a kayaker in difficulty just off Siccar point. The lifeboat was quickly launched and made best speed up the coast. The kayaker had managed to get ashore on the rocks at St Helen's and was met by Eyemouth Coastguard rescue team who gave casualty care as he was cold & had ingested an amount of sea water and then was passed into the care of the ambulance service. The Coastguard requested if we could locate the abandoned kayak and return it to Pease bay where it was picked up by the waiting Coastguard team.
We wish the casualty a speedy recovery, and thanks to the fisherman for raising the alarm after he noticed the kayaker struggling.
When on the coast, If you see something that you don't think is right or think someone may be in danger call 999 and ask for the Coastguard

11/09/2026

We are delighted to announce that two of our crew - Julie and Susan - will be joining more than 40 women from 24 Scottish lifeboat stations in Eyemouth, St Abbs and Dunbar on 19 and 20 September for a groundbreaking Women in Search and Rescue (SAR) Scotland event. Read the full story by clicking on the link below.

More than 40 women from 24 different lifeboat stations are heading to Eyemouth, St Abbs and Dunbar on 19 and 20 September for a groundbreaking Women in Search and Rescue…