Ahoy, me hearties! The crowds turned up in their hundreds to help Freshwater Independent Lifeboat fill their coffers with pieces of eight.

The first open day for more than a year had a pirate theme and two news sponsors in Spence Willard and Solent Spirit.

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Community partners such as Freshwater Fire Station, NCI Needles, IW Search and Rescue along with Suicide Prevention and Intervention IW all set up stalls.

Raffle prizes included Red Funnel (who chose the independent lifeboats as its charity of the year) donating five return tickets and the IW Festival a pair of weekend tickets.

Isle of Wight County Press: Freshwater Inshore Lifeboat Open Day

Freshwater Residents' Association manned the barbecue and the lifeboat volunteers cooked up a storm with a selection of 18 different cakes.

Bands provided live music through the afternoon.

Rod Adams, principle fundraiser, said, “We raised an incredible £5,500 and this massive and record amount was the result of a lot of hard work by our team of volunteers and friends without whom we could not keep the service running.

"It was gratifying to see so many people in the bay obviously really enjoying themselves. Everyone really needed this wonderful boost of normality after a very hard 15 months.”

As the Open Day wound down, IW Bars’ big red bus provided refreshment and snacks to our visitors.