Today was my first day of my second week of training and things did not get off to a good start. The train that should take me to Portsmouth was late and I also managed to somehow lose my tickets in the platform. So I ended up having to run around Gosport with my big bag on tow and I still managed to arrive 30 min late. Luckily they were also waiting for another guy and things had not started yet.
On my way to the training I learned that some people I knew were not being able to come to the training due to the coronavirus situation. Then we also learned that the other guy that we were waiting for would not finally be joining us due to an emergency situation back home. So in the end it was just 4 of us doing the training, something that would bring some consequences as you will later learn.
In this training, apart from me we had Dan, Canadian-born but living in Tampa, Nickel from Germany but living in Miami and Dumitru from Romania, living in the UK. All of them had some kind of sailing experience.
The first day of the second week is dedicated to a Sea Survival course, which is done at a school in Gosport which has a swimming pool. Our teacher was a friendly chap who specialised in this kind of courses.
On my way to the training I learned that some people I knew were not being able to come to the training due to the coronavirus situation. Then we also learned that the other guy that we were waiting for would not finally be joining us due to an emergency situation back home. So in the end it was just 4 of us doing the training, something that would bring some consequences as you will later learn.
In this training, apart from me we had Dan, Canadian-born but living in Tampa, Nickel from Germany but living in Miami and Dumitru from Romania, living in the UK. All of them had some kind of sailing experience.
The first day of the second week is dedicated to a Sea Survival course, which is done at a school in Gosport which has a swimming pool. Our teacher was a friendly chap who specialised in this kind of courses.
The training was quite comprehensive and quite interesting overall, it covers most of the things that you would need to be aware of in order to improve your chances of survival in an emergency situation at sea. To me the best part was that they brought a lot of kit that we could inspect (most of the things like flares or EPIRBs were dummies which could not be actually set off) and they encouraged us to play with it. Probably the worst part was that our teacher spent a long time telling us about "horror" stories of things that had gone wrong in the past at sea, which I felt did not actually add any value to the course.
They give you an official RYA Sea Survival Handbook which is quite interesting. I specially liked the pictures which are great and very informative. One of the bits of kit that we were able to try are the food rations that are enclosed in most life rafts. They are actually not too bad and quite edible. The texture is nice, they just don't taste of anything. You can see both items in the picture above
One of the pieces of kit that we got to try are the new Spinlock life jackets that we are going to use in the actual race. I liked them a lot. They are really light, comfortable and very easy to get into, no struggle with your straps. The automatic inflation depends on a Hammar hydrostatic pressure detector which means that it is much more difficult for them to set off in wet working conditions like when working on the foredeck (this also means that they may not inflate if you don't actually submerge enough in the water, but they have a manual release with a big handle, really easy to find). I got to demonstrate how to activate one of them in front of the class and that was fun.
After lunch it was time for the practice in the swimming pool. They had asked us to bring some clothes that could get wet and I just brought a swimming suit and a T-shirt. I saw that Dumitru had brought a small wetsuit and initially I thought that was a good idea but later in the pool it was actually quite hot and I think that a wetsuit will be just a hindrance. They lent us some wet weather gear and some of the new life jackets and we started the practice.
We started by throwing the life raft into the swimming pool and seeing it inflate. It was an 8 man raft, so more than enough for us. They told us that if there are more persons they usually use two life rafts. We then practiced getting into the life raft from the border of the pool, paddling from the raft, jumping into the water and getting your life jacket to inflate, adopting the emergency posture in the water, huddling in pairs and in groups, transporting a casualty, doing the crocodile (a position to form a chain of people to swim together), getting into the raft from the water with the help of others, righting a capsized life raft and getting into a raft by yourself.
One of the pieces of kit that we got to try are the new Spinlock life jackets that we are going to use in the actual race. I liked them a lot. They are really light, comfortable and very easy to get into, no struggle with your straps. The automatic inflation depends on a Hammar hydrostatic pressure detector which means that it is much more difficult for them to set off in wet working conditions like when working on the foredeck (this also means that they may not inflate if you don't actually submerge enough in the water, but they have a manual release with a big handle, really easy to find). I got to demonstrate how to activate one of them in front of the class and that was fun.
After lunch it was time for the practice in the swimming pool. They had asked us to bring some clothes that could get wet and I just brought a swimming suit and a T-shirt. I saw that Dumitru had brought a small wetsuit and initially I thought that was a good idea but later in the pool it was actually quite hot and I think that a wetsuit will be just a hindrance. They lent us some wet weather gear and some of the new life jackets and we started the practice.
We started by throwing the life raft into the swimming pool and seeing it inflate. It was an 8 man raft, so more than enough for us. They told us that if there are more persons they usually use two life rafts. We then practiced getting into the life raft from the border of the pool, paddling from the raft, jumping into the water and getting your life jacket to inflate, adopting the emergency posture in the water, huddling in pairs and in groups, transporting a casualty, doing the crocodile (a position to form a chain of people to swim together), getting into the raft from the water with the help of others, righting a capsized life raft and getting into a raft by yourself.
This last bit was the most difficult part of the exercise. It is not too difficult if you have other people helping you by pushing your bum of pulling from above but when you have to do it on your own it is quite challenging as the steps just do not provide any kind of adequate support and pulling yourself over the high side of a raft is quite a struggle. But we all managed to do it and I can say that all in all the practice in the swimming pool was amazing and great fun, I really enjoyed it and I think I learned a lot. I just hope I never have to practice what I learned!
We left the course at around 5 and went back to the Clipper offices where we met Jim, our skipper, and Gavin, the first mate. Jim was a bit baffled that it was only four of us. Fortunately, apart from them there were a couple of other guys joining us: Stef who was joining as second mate and Charles who was joining as apprentice. They all seemed pretty good chaps, with a sense of humour and a good attitude.
We went to the boat and chose our bunks, no problem choosing this time as there were only a handful of us. While Stef finished cooking dinner, Gavin gave us a review of all the security features down below and a review of the process to check the engine, including the famous IWOBBLEDU. A nice curry and then time to go to the pub. Everything was going quite OK and all of them seemed like great guys. It is a shame that there were no women on the ship crew, I always feel that a good gender mix makes everything run even better.
