The thing is, next time it could genuinely be a boat, in the dark, with a man overboard, or something similar, and anyone who phoned 999 tonight could think "Oh look - another exercise".
With something like that, every second counts.
I was advised that it was actually the coastguard themselves doing the exercise. They must have anticipated that they'd get calls. After all, that's what the flares are for!
Half a dozen went up in the end. Quite an impressive firework display.
As an aside - the AA had an advertising campaign where they called themselves "the 4th Emergency Service". Flawed right from the start, as, coming from the coast, I always knew the Coastguard was there before them!
Smartarse really ought to be my middle name.
