Good Luck to our team members and supporters who are taking part in the 46th Keswick 2 Barrow walk tomorrow, 9 people are walking for us (Helen, Kelly, Chelsea, Karen, John, Norm, Dave, Mark and Lindsay). K2B is a 40 mile challenge walk through some great Lake District scenery. At the same time a number of team members and supporters will be marshalling at Lowick. If you fancy a challenge why not join us on our annual Cross Bay Walk on the 15th July.

Thank You also to daysoutinfo.co.uk and SockSock for sponsoring the team t-shirts and supply fantastic walking socks to the team members.

You'll be able to follow our team on twitter under the hashtag #k2b110 as we are team 110 in the walk

Today we have signed a (MOU) Memorandum of Understanding with Lancashire Fire and Rescue.

Gary Parsons Station Officer and Chairman of BSAR said "This is to enable the two Organisations to work together formally, exchanging knowledge in joint training in their relevant specialist fields, making live incidents safer for all"

For the Bay Rescue Team this already adds to the MOU signed with Cumbria Fire and Rescue  back in 2009, just before the Cumbrian floods of that year. BSAR played an intrinsic role in the 2009 floods in Cockermouth conducting over 22 rescues in just 48 hours, mainly during the night.

Pictured are Paul Richardson, Deputy Chief Fire Officer, Lancashire Fire & Rescue and Gary Parsons, Station Officer/Chairman, Bay SAR.

Click here for the full press release.

Well done to team members Colin Hodgson & Dave Abel who have both passed their Powered Boat for Rescue Response in North Wales with Outreach Rescue. A Hard five day course but enjoyed by both. This brings to 3 boat operators to DEFRA Module 4 level taking us closer to Type B Team Typing.

Our simple online system allows you to register for the walk, and will provide a link to a downloadable sponsor form and also your own online fundraising page where people can sponsor you and pay online, this also reclaims GiftAid for us at the same time and saves you handling money or chasing people. You are registering for a sponsored walk and as this is our main fundraising event each year and is always very popular we will only accept a very limited number of non-sponsored registrations. If you do wish to walk without raising sponsorship we would suggest a donation to the charity instead. Thanks for your support.

As reported in the interview with Gary Parsons our station officer on BBC radio cumbria this morning, and the Westmorland Gazette last week, we are looking for a 'forward operating base' for our team. Our work with our partners in Cumbria Fire and Rescue and Lancashire Fire and Rescue (flood rescue eg Cockermouth, moorland fire support, off road recovery), plus supporting the NW ambulance Service and first responders in advsere weather, means we work inland far more these days. As we need to maintain the best response times possible across the South Lakes and North Lancashire we have had a Landrover 4x4 stationed in Milnthorpe for a couple of years and this has proved its worth time and time again. This will be joined by one of our trailered flood rescue boats and a team minibus. We are also fitting out two 18 ton box trucks which will be used to transport and store our Hagglunds BV206 all terrain tracked rescue vehicles, and we also hope to be able to park one of these units 'ready to go' at the forward base during heavy snow or flood forecast situations. 

Anything would be considered. Ideally a small industrial unit... however the minimum would be a 15m x 15m or equivalent plot of land with road access, on which we could erect a temporary double garage and a portable office (kit room) and still have parking for our vehicles, and teams own cars, when responding to callouts. We would like to thank PV Dobsons at Levens who have generously given us two parking spaces on their carpark for now until we find somewhere.

If you do know of anything, please give Paul Calland, Deputy station Officer a call on 07811 119838 or email paul@baysearchandrescue.org.uk

The date for the Bay Search and Rescue Annual Sponsored Cross Bay walk has now been confirmed as Sunday 15th July 2012, starting 3.15pm from Arnside, and walking across to Kents Bank Station near Grange over Sands.

The registration system will be going online on this website in the next week or two so please check back if you wish to book a place on the walk!

On Monday the 6th Feb we where joined by Martin Holroyd from Cumbria Fire & Rescue. He ran a session on Wildfire Awareness, to make the team aware of how the Fire Service operate in wildfire, understand how wildfires work and be aware of the standard operating procedure during wildfires. Bay SAR offer logistical support during wildfires, our two Hagglunds BV206 All Terrain Rescue vehicles will can travel over most terrain and have a large carrying capacity.

Some of the team joined Lancashire Fire & Rescue, Bowland Pennine Mountain Rescue Team and United Utilities on moorland near Darwen in Lancashire to test a number of differnt types of off road vehicles including our Hagglunds, LFRS Softtrac, UUs Argocat, BPMRT Land Rovers and a Polaris 6x6 off road vehicle for use in moorland fires. For photos and video click on our Youtube and photo gallery

Days out Discounts is a new fund raising idea brought to you, by us, in partnership with Northern Print Distribution & Cypher Digital. For just £10.00, all of which goes to Bay Search & Rescue, you can get free child entries with full paying adults to the following tourist attractions across Cumbria & North Lancashire, and SAVE yourself up to £147. CLICK HERE to buy or find out more.

Last night we attended the presentation evening for the 2011 Keswick to Barrow walk, we have been awarded £1500.00. We had both a walking team and also marshalled at Lowick. We'll be back to both walk and marshal again on the 12th May 2012, if you would like to be part of our walking team please e-mail mike