JERSEY’S search-and-rescue teams were praised and handed donations at the Gorey Boat Blessing Service yesterday.
Crew members from several organisations – including the RNLI, Jersey Fire and Rescue Service, the Jersey Lifeboat Association and SNSM Carteret – attended the blessing led by Reverend Jeff Wattley on Gorey Pier.
The event is held to honour and remember those lost at sea and to seek God’s blessing for local boats and crews.
This year it also featured a flyover by the Channel Islands Air Search plane.
Wreaths were released into the sea and donations were presented by the Gorey Boat Owners’ Association to representatives of each lifeboat crew.
Mr Wattley said: ‘Our islands and our neighbouring mainlands of France and the UK are wonderfully well served by having these search-and-rescue services, that will work so hard and so professionally to find anybody who is in trouble.
‘We have a search and rescue culture – anybody, including you and me, who finds themselves in trouble or lost will be on the receiving end of an all-out search.
‘That search will continue so long as there is hope, no matter how difficult or costly that search might be – and that tells you something about how much we value people.’
Speaking to the JEP after the service, he added: ‘The GBOA, who are co-sponsors of this event, always make an annual donation to support each of the lifeboats – we thought it would be really nice to give those gifts in person this morning.
‘When everybody else is putting their boats away and going into the warm, they are the ones getting into their boats and going out.
‘I think they need to be celebrated and we as a community need to take the opportunity like we are this year, and in several other places around the Island, to give thanks for the protection that we receive, and thanks to God for the protection we get from him.’
