TWO local lifeboat volunteers have learnt the skills that will help them stay safe while saving lives at sea, thanks to £1million of funding from the Lloyd’s Register Foundation.

RNLI Angle lifeboat station volunteers Michael Higgins, 39, of Tiers Cross, and Carl Morgan, 36, of Milford Haven, recently travelled to Dorset to take part in the charity’s all weather lifeboat course.

Michael, who works for Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority, previously served at RNLI Little and Broad Haven as a helmsman in its D class inshore lifeboat.

Carl is a deckhand with Milford Haven’s Svitzer tug fleet.

As part of the course, the pair were trained in a variety of crucial subjects, including how to ‘abandon ship’, team survival swimming and coping in a life raft in simulated darkness.

They also learn to deal with fires aboard lifeboats, how to right a capsized inshore lifeboat; and the importance of lifejackets.

The training was paid for by the Lloyds Register Foundation, an independent charity that funds work to enhance the safety of life and property at sea, on land and in the air.

The foundation is funding the sea survival element of the RNLI course for five years, from January 2011 to December 2015.

This additional funding of nearly £1 million brings their total support to just over £1.5 million.

RNLI Angle Lifeboat operations manager John Allen-Mirehouse said: “The support given by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation is hugely important to the RNLI.

“We are extremely grateful that it has chosen to fund sea survival training, which teaches vital core skills to our volunteer crew.

“This training is central to allowing the RNLI and its volunteers to stay safe while on rescue missions. It equips volunteers with essential sea survival skills; providing them with the courage, poise and self-confidence to save lives even in the most perilous seas.”