Oscar Rescue Charlie at Bressay Lighthouse Click on picture to enlarge Photograph by Sharma Krauskopf

Every once and awhile I am reminded how treacherous the sea is around my island home. Shetland can be as dangerous sailing today as it was in the days when this lighthouse was built. There is a lot more sophisticated equipment to rescue the ships in distress these days. Leading the way in the rescue department for the waters around Shetland is Oscar Rescue Charlie.

Oscar Rescue Charlie is a Sikorsky S-61N heliocopter available 24 hours, at 15 minutes notice by day and 45 minutes at night. It has a crew of 4 and a maximum range of 455nm in still air or 150nm operational radius of action with 19 survivors. The aircrafts maximum speed is 130kts, but cruises at 110kts.

Oscar Rescue Charlie performing rescue demonstration Click on picture to enlarge Photograph by Sharma Krauskopf

The aircraft was recently fitted with a new winch system comprising of two totally separate and independent winches, both capable of lifting 600lbs. This with Forward Looking Infa-Red, Radar and a host of specialist equipment make it a invaluable tool.

Last weekend they had a demonstration of this remarkable craft and I got some good pictures of Oscar Rescue Charlie in operation. It made me feel a lot safer as the pictures were taken while I was on a boat in Lerwick harbour.

Sharma

I love to hear from you so contact me by Email at sharma@sharmakrauskopf.com

You can find more articles in the archive under Island Miniatures/Lighthouse Letters.

I have three books which are directly related to this column. The Last Lighthouse tells how we bought our lighthouse, the day by day journal of a year at Eshaness entitled A Year in the Lighthouse and in Scottish Lighthouses our lighthouse is featured in the 31 lighthouses presented. You can find out more about these books and other I have written at my official author web site.