Nearly

My Blip was just going to be this image, which I quite liked - the juxtaposition of the boat and the inflatable dinghy I was quite taken with as I took the photo this afternoon from our little balcony.

The boat, which we assumed was a fishing boat as there is usually one or more just offshore, had been there since first thing in the morning. The two people in the dinghy had been paddling about close to the shore and then had drifted for a long while, until the tide left them beached. They continued to sit in it in the sunshine - one way of sitting comfortably on a pebble beach! 

The two vessels were not related in any way, but they could have been . . . 

It was only when I looked at my photo that I realised this was definitely not a fishing boat. So what was it? And what was it doing? I did some research, in fact a lot of research, until I eventually found the answer. 

The boat was a Smit Stour, a Multipurpose Fast Craft, a Range Safety Vessel. Apparently there are 9 of these in the UK - 3 based in Dover, 3 at Portland and 3 at Pembroke, but they are road transportable at short notice. 

The 3 at Dover are operated by Boskalis for the Ministry of Defence and they patrol the coast between Hythe and Lydd ranges when live firing exercises are taking place. They ensure that errant leisure craft and other vessels do not sail into danger and the firing line and they can do a search and rescue operation if necessary. We had heard the firing this morning, so that made sense. 

So, if the little dinghy had wandered too far to the right, it would have been interesting . . . sadly they didn’t!