Last Tuesday the Islands stopped. The airport was closed, the tripper boats missed their two o’clock trip as many Islanders paid their respects to Nathan Woodcock and his family.

The funeral service was attended by hundreds of people in the Methodist Church and in much of the street outside. His body was carried up Church Road and laid to rest in Old Town Graveyard.

Islanders expressed their grief in different ways over the twelve days between his death after a domestic gig race and the day of his funeral. His oar has been standing on the Old Quay, near where he died, with flowers and tributes. His body had an emotional send-off on Monday as hundreds of people gathered on the quay whilst his body left to be autopsied. The following Friday’s gig race was changed to a row, where his fellow gig rowers paddled from Nut Rock to St Mary’s Quay, raising their oars upon reaching the quay in a moment’s silence. His fellow lifeboat crew-members brought his body back on board a relief lifeboat, which was joined by two lifeboats from the Cornish fleet. On Tuesday, his pub friends sung in chorus in a tradition in the Mermaid he had always enjoyed.

His family request that anyone wishing to make donations send them to St Mary’s Lifeboat or to Megan’s Trust, set up for Nathan and, his partner, Vicky’s daughter.