For all crews, the support network extends far beyond the staff and volunteers themselves: they need their family behind them at all times.

In Torbay, Devon, a yacht has sent out a mayday, meaning the lives of the six crew on board are in grave and imminent danger. In Wales, the Aberystwyth crew race to the rescue of a small boat that has lost engine power and is drifting perilously close to the rocks at the end of the harbour wall.

In Dover, the crew launch their Severn-class lifeboat, after reports that a small boat - with 30 people on board - has capsized in the English Channel. On the north east coast of England, in Cleethorpes, a man is cut off by the tide in a notorious trouble spot. And on the Sussex coast, the Eastbourne crew respond to an unusual call out: a deer in the water... Show less