Force 12 outside, and they still launched: Girvan's volunteer lifeboat crew answers at 00:37

The pager went at 00:37 on Sunday, at the very height of Storm Boelo, with winds around Girvan harbour between Force 11 and hurricane-force Force 12. A person had been reported in the water at Ayr. The RNLI's Girvan volunteers picked their way over storm debris on the jetty, boarded the Shannon-class lifeboat Elizabeth and Gertrude Allan, and put to sea — before Belfast Coastguard stood the launch down minutes later and the crew came safely home to bed. 'It's a testament to the crew,' said Lifeboat Operations Manager John Gourlay, 'that without question or hesitation they answered the call.' They will answer the next one, too.

Mechanism: community action