A north-east couple have raised hundreds of pounds for Peterhead RNLI in recognition of its efforts during a dramatic rescue.
The heroic lifeboat crew were responsible for saving the lives of five fishermen earlier this month amid stormy weather.
A 160 tonne fishing vessel was just seconds from crashing into the rocks at Peterhead Breakwater before their intervention.
The crew and boat were brought safely ashore.
So impressed were Nicola and Stewart Buchan by the bravery shown by the lifeboat crew after watching coverage of them in action, they felt compelled to give something back.
Personal trainer Nicola and husband Stewart – who when he’s not at sea can be found cooking up mouth-watering feasts on social media – teamed up to host the Lifeboat Charity Cook.
Mrs Buchan’s clients were offered the chance to taste her husband’s Instagram-famous recipes in return for a small donation and orders quickly rushed in.
More than £700 has been raised so far.
Brave people
The couple and their two children, Chloe and Jayden, prepared and cooked all day and night on Saturday – with Stewart and Nicola even getting up at 3am on Sunday to check the 30kg of meat that was smoking on Stewart’s barbecue and make sure all orders were ready for a safe, socially distanced collection.
The end result was food for more than 100 people.
“We wanted to raise money for the brave people of Peterhead Lifeboat who risked their own lives in the rescue last week,” said Mrs Buchan.
“I continually get people asking about Stewart’s food so I thought we should cook for my NB Fitness clients and do a little bit of a barbecue.
“We spent all day and night preparing for the orders and getting up to check it throughout the night.
“We also made sides and puddings.
“All donations are going to the Lifeboat so we’re really excited about that.
“People have been very generous, offering donations even when all the food had run out, so we’re really grateful.”
“It’s just incredible to see everyone show their support and we can’t thank everyone enough.”
Jonathan Hutton, Peterhead RNLI
Stewart got into barbecue after spending some time in Houston with work and, after completing a course at the Meat Monsters smokehouse in Ellon, now finds himself getting the tongs out five or six time a week.
During lockdown he decided to start sharing the results on his Instagram page at @big_bucsbbq.
Peterhead Lifeboat crew member Jonathan Hutton, who was involved in the rescue, said the support from the local community has been fantastic.
“It’s just incredible to see everyone show their support and we can’t thank everyone enough,” he said.
“We’d like to say a huge thank you to Stewart and Nicola for thinking of us and for going to all this effort to raise funds and awareness for us.”
Peterhead Lifeboat Station is staffed by one full-time RNLI employee.
The rest of the crew, operational team and fundraisers are all volunteers who give up their free time to commit to saving lives at sea.
They remain on call 365 days of the year, even in the current lockdown.
This has meant adapting quickly to align with government guidelines while ensuring they are still ready to respond when the pager sounds.
As a charity, separate from the coastguard and independent from government, the RNLI is reliant on voluntary donations to power its lifesaving work.
