Seaside paddle with a difference supports Sheringham RNLI
The RNLI in Sheringham is indebted to two resourceful young men who wanted to make a difference.
On 6 July 2019 at five in the morning, the temperature being 22°C, two brave souls set out from Dungeness on Paddleboards and headed out across the English Channel. Six hours and 30 miles later they arrived in Boulogne-sur-mere and partook of a well-earned ‘pint’ of European Beer.
The two guys in question were Lewis Gray, crewman with RNLI Sheringham, and his friend Charlie Graham-Ward.
Lewis said: 'It was quite a tricky journey across some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, however we were most grateful to Full Throttle Charters who provided the safety boat and crew to navigate our way across the Channel in a relatively small weather window.'
They didn’t just do this on a whim but with the intention of raising money for the RNLI in Sheringham, which total amounted to some £5000.
On 5 January 2020, as part of their donation to RNLI Sheringham, Lewis and Charlie presented a Beacon to be used for crew training at Sheringham. The Beacon is despatched into the North Sea and, some time later, after the wind and the tide have had an effect on its whereabouts, the lifeboat and crew set out to recover it.
Charlie and Lewis, not content with their efforts across the Channel, then took part in a Paddleboard Race along the Caledonian Canal from Fort William to Inverness, a distance of some 60 miles, with no sighting of any monsters reported!
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