BY DIONNE MEEHAN
AFTER many months of training and assessments, Árainn Mhór RNLI volunteer crew member Sharon O’Donnell recently passed out as a coxswain and is now the first woman in Ireland to take command of the Severn class all-weather lifeboat.
Sharon O’Donnell, who is an early educator, passed out on April 4 on the biggest boat in the fleet which has a range of 250 nautical miles.
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution is the largest charity that saves lives at sea around the coasts of the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, as well as on some inland waterways.
With a great link between the island and the RNLI, Sharon joined the crew in 2017.
Working hard over the years to work her way up, Sharon went through years of training to get her where she is today.
For the past couple of years Sharon has worked as a navigator with the RNLI, however, when the opportunity came up to go on the Coxswain plan, Sharon jumped at the opportunity.
Sharon now has the overall responsibility of the vessel, to keep the crew safe, to keep the vessel safe and to keep any potential casualties safe.
Speaking to the Donegal News, Sharon said she is now responsible for overseeing the whole process from launching the boat to selecting the suitable crew, maintaining the safety, the navigational safety, being aware of hazards and risks and constantly assessing the situation and updating her plan as it develops.
“Although we have a lot of preparation in emergency drills, you never know what you’re going to until the pager goes off.
“When the pager goes off we are alerted from the coastguard or maybe from our local operations manager.
“We don’t know until we arrive at the station what the call is going to be about,” she said.
With call outs ranging from a vessel in danger to a man overboard, every call is different for Sharon.
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