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have a go on the helm. “They get a fire fighting fun thing with some of the officer cadets and then we do the low ropes course which is all about trust, working as a team and leadership.
“I get them out on the parade ground and we do some drill with ‘Simon Says,’ and a real highlight is to go and see the college beagles. “We also have a bridge simulator so they can drive a ship into harbour somewhere, but we make it a bit more fun than the real guys and crash into things, give them the northern lights or make it a very rough sea, which they love! “I also give them a tour of the college and if I’ve got enough surface cover I put on a try dive, or run them through the naval swim test.” BRNC’s passing out balls used to be organised by a
rota of different lieutenants at the college, but it was after one of them started to plan a ball resembling a “student union” series of bars and nothing else that Sophie was asked to take over. “He was stood down with two weeks to go because he didn’t have any bands or anything booked,” she recalled. “So the committee, which I was on, sat down in someone’s office and booked everything and made it happen. “After that the commander asked me to take it on as I am here all the time and the navy staff tend to move on after two years.” Sophie approached RNLI Dart three years ago. “I went in all guns blazing saying ‘Hi, I’m a power
boat instructor, diver, coxswain, assessor – I’ve driven boats all my life…’ and they were like, ‘Yeah, forget that, you will never be a helm or boat crew because you are too old,’” she laughed. Instead, Sophie became one of the
charity’s deputy launch authorities (DLA) and is on duty six days each month. “If the pager goes off I phone the Coastguard and find out what’s up, then depending on what it is I make the decision to send either the big boat if it’s further out to sea and can cope with heavier weather conditions, or the little boat if it’s up river and the tide is low. “If we get three or four shouts in a day or weekend
it’s quite onerous, especially if you are the DLA because you’ve got to do shedloads of paperwork. So we try to share the workload and look after each other”. “But it has been a really positive thing for me, as when my mum moved down, I was spending so little time at the college because I was working at home a lot, and I started to lose social contact with my colleagues up there. “To have a different set of friends at the lifeboat who
are all locals, from all walks of life and know so much about Dartmouth has been amazing.”
This year Sophie joined Dartmouth Town Council
after several people encouraged her to try for councillor. “I didn’t know if I was going to be too busy but there
was a vacancy mid-term and I thought ‘well it’s only for two years,’ she said. “We are 16 eclectic people who all have different
ideas. “It’s quite interesting to go and see what people
have to say and then ask them why they are saying that and if they have thought about looking at it a different way. “I’m a good challenger of what has always been and
listening to people because, if you do, you get to hear about what the town is going through. “Dartmouth seems to be a town of two different
parts. We all need to work together to ensure that the town’s harmony is as good as it can be. “I want to try and close that gap a bit because we are all in it together.” Sophie first visited Dartmouth while preparing for
her national instructor exam on board the dive boat MV Maureen of Dart. “When I got the job at BRNC the commute
from Exeter was just hideous, so I bought a house in Pathfields and I love it here. “I’ve got great neighbours and we all look out for each other.”
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