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Displaying items by tag: Summer Solstice

#RNLI - Arklow RNLI supporters are being asked to come out and walk or jog a midnight mile - four laps of the running track at Coral Leisure Centre - in Arklow this Friday 21 June.

The walk/run will take place on the Summer Solstice from 10pm. The event is free and all donations are welcome. Prize raffles will take place, and Stormy Stan and his lifeboat buddies will be on hand to cheer on the participants.

Participants are being asked to assemble at the Lake Coffee Shop in the leisure centre from 10pm, with the walk/jog commencing just before midnight. 

Full details are available from Mary at 086 304 5418.   

In other Arklow RNLI news, a former chairman of fundraising at the lifeboat unit was honoured recently by the charity for his trojan work recently.

Tommy Annesley, a local councillor, received the Bronze Award at the recent RNLI Annual Presentation of Awards at Trinity College Dublin.

A few days later, Annesley was again honoured, this time by his hometown and fellow councillors when he became Lord Mayor of Arklow.

All at Arklow RNLI including lifeboat crew, fundraisers and other volunteers extended their best wishes to Tommy Annesley for his tenure as Lord Mayor.

Meanwhile, at the recent RNLI AGM in London, Arklow RNLI operations manager Jimmy Tyrell made a presentation to current RNLI operations director Mike Vlasto to honour the relationship and friendship that has developed between them in their years in the RNLI.

  1. A unique handcrafted piece was made locally in Arklow for the presentation.

Both Tyrell and Vlasto are retiring from the RNLI over the next year.

Published in RNLI Lifeboats

About Commander Bill King, Solo Circumnavigator

William Donald Aelian King was the last surviving submarine commander in the Second World War - in charge of the British Navy's T-class Telemachus that sank a Japanese sub in the Strait of Malacca, between Malaysia and Sumatra, in 1944.

Decorated many times for his service by the end of the war, King became a trailblazing solo sailor.

At the age of 58, he was the oldest participant in The Sunday Times Golden Globe Race sailing Galway Blazer II, a junk-rigged schooner he designed himself.

After a number of abortive attempts, including an incident with "a large sea creature", he finally completed his solo circumnavigation of the globe in 1973.

Beyond his aquatic escapades, King settled with his wife Anita (who died in 1984, aged 70) at Oranmore Castle outside Galway after the war, where he later developed a pioneering organic farm and garden to help tackle his wife's asthma.

The round-the-world sailor and Galway native Bill King died on Friday, 21 September, 2012, aged 102.