life on the high seas
For coxswain Lawrie Cerexhe, no two days are the same. Not only is she and her team responsible for making sure passenger and machinery boats run smoothly to and from Holcim UK’s Glensanda quarry – a former Viking settlement in a remote part of the Scottish Highlands – she is also a volunteer lifeboat crew member with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).
a happy accident
After working for Stena Line ferries for nine years, Lawrie went to work on site at Glensanda quarry and, because of her extensive qualifications, landed herself a job in Holcim UK’s marine department.
She has always been surrounded by the sea and since a young age has taken great interest in working on the water.
Lawrie said: “When I was 18, I volunteered with my local RNLI lifeboat crew and, because of where I lived in Stranraer, I knew there would be work for me on the ferries. So I took a seasonal job at Stena Line and ended up staying there for the next nine years. All the while I was still working on the lifeboats.
“I moved to Oban about six years ago and wanted to work at Glensanda quarry to get more hands on with the boat deck and that side of things. I went to the quarry and knew the marine team there, so I said that if a job did come up, I’d be interested and asked them to contact me. I was lucky, to be honest, that a job did arise and the marine team took me on. Despite not having my boat master’s licence at the time, I was welcomed into the team and then given the opportunity to gain that qualification I needed.”
a new routine
Lawrie quickly adapted to her schedule working on the boats at Glensanda and, as someone who is familiar with early-morning lifeboat starts, the 6am wake-up call is like water off a duck’s back.
She said: “At the beginning of the day, we’ll come in, start the boat up, load it and get the passengers on it. The mornings are usually busy because we have two full boatloads of workers we need to take over to the quarry.
“In the afternoons, we do maintenance checks and then take food stores over to the workers. And then in the evening, we’re busy again bringing people back from the quarry to the mainland.”
If Lawrie is working on the barge, which transports material from the quarry to the mainland, her day starts at 8am when she and her team begin to load it up with resources – a process that takes one hour and 15 minutes. They then unload the barge in Glensanda, refill it and return to the deck several times. Each day the tasks are fairly similar, but the unpredictability of the Scottish weather and remote location means anything can happen.
“The barge will sometimes be cancelled due to the bad weather,” Lawrie said. “And it’s not just weather that sometimes throws a spanner in the works. People get sick like in any other workplace, and there’s only one way off the quarry…the boat. We have had to do many emergency runs out to the quarry, which is never nice but it’s an important part of the job.”
The skills required in this part of Lawrie’s job are very similar to the ones she needs in her role outside of Holcim. Being a long-standing volunteer with the RNLI, she regularly heads out on call to rescue people who are in trouble at sea.
saving lives at sea
Lawrie has been with the lifeboat charity for 12 years and has found her job with the marine department at Glensanda works seamlessly with her volunteer role.
Lawrie said: “I work on a week-on, week-off basis between Holcim and the RNLI. But even when I’m not on call with the RNLI, I do a lot of work with the charity. For example, I do a lot of water safety work with the local community, which Holcim is really supportive of. If I need a few extra days off to help out with the charity, the team is always willing to help me out.
“In fact, the RNLI has always had a close relationship with Glensanda quarry. We’ve carried out medical evacuations from the quarry in the middle of the night – they’re always really nerve-racking because obviously I’m so close with the guys who work at Glensanda and it kind of hits home a bit more. But on the other hand, it’s nice that I can blend my two passions together and see one directly having a good impact on the other.”
Working with the RNLI brings its ups and downs for Lawrie, and she’s all too familiar with the hard jobs that don’t go as well as hoped.
“Don't get me wrong, there have been some hard times when I’ve just needed to take a break in the RNLI,” Lawrie said.
“I'd say the past couple of years have actually been quite unlucky for our team because we’ve ended up having to deal with a few rescues in a row where the outcome wasn’t what we’d hoped for.
“At one point, it did get really hard for me and I had to give myself a bit of time before I got back to heading out on the lifeboat. But my team are fantastic at supporting one another and the RNLI is great at offering support whenever you might need it.”
The camaraderie between Lawrie and her fellow volunteers, and her team at Glensanda, allows her to keep on riding the waves.
Lawrie said: “Of course there are serious days, both working in the RNLI and in the quarry at Glensanda. But we all have a laugh and we’re all there for each other – that’s what really matters and is what I love about working in this industry.”
Whether she is saving lives out at sea or making sure boats to and from Glensanda run without a hitch, it’s Lawrie’s cool and calm nature that keeps her (and her boats) steady when there’s a storm around her.
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