Survival at Sea - 51°42' 36" N 04° 57' 37" W

This diagram is part of the safety briefing we do for everyone coming aboard.
We are serious about keeping everyone safe.

SPOILER ALERT: We survived!

We have wanted to do a Sea Survival course for some time but had challenges with us being a moving target and committing to a course several months away.  Once we knew we would be wintering in Wales, we were very organised and booked the course at the marina just down the road.  

Kitted out in our 'one size fits all' survival suits (for training purposes only...) 
It must be noted that the suits were still too long for our 6ft 5' course mate!

The course covered:

1. Preparation for sea survival 

• Survival difficulties 
• Survival requirements 
• Equipment available
• Actions prior to abandonment 

2. Lifejackets and Life rafts 

• Lifejacket design and construction, correct donning procedure, purpose and use of lifejackets 
• Safety harnesses - purpose and use 
• Life rafts - stowage and containment on board, types, design and construction, launching,  abandoning the vessel and boarding life raft , righting a capsized life raft, initial actions to be taken in a life raft 

3. Principles of survival 

• Methods to increase chances of survival 
• Signs, symptoms and treatment of hypothermia 
• Symptoms, method of treatment for sunburn, heat exhaustion and heatstroke 
• Survival routines to aid location 
• Correct use of pyrotechnics and other location aids 
• Water rationing – procedures 
• Dehydration and preventative measures 
• Food rationing 
• Sources of food 

4. Survival craft ailments 

5. Raft management 

6. Search and rescue 

• Rescue by helicopter or vessel 
• Role of HM Coastguard 
• UK and International SAR Organisation 
• Other services

'One size fits all' means any water that gets in runs to your feet.  
Next time I have a need for concrete boots...

While we do know a lot of this, which is rather fortunate considering our current lifestyle, neither of us have used an inflatable life jacket in the water or deployed a life raft, let alone right one and get into it.  And you will always learn something...

We loved the course and we know we NEVER want to have to get into a life raft.  But if we do, we now have some experience in just how awful it would be.   

Each of us had to practice righting then entering the life raft

We learned many things.  We can now service our life jackets (we have ten aboard). Six of them are new, fancy, inflatable ones (or PFDs) we bought with the boat.  We have two older PFDs that are in need of a service and two good old Canadian Tire foam life jackets that we can leave in the dinghy without fear of theft!  It's a useful skill to be able to service them yourself.  

Our older PFDs are close to 15-years old and technically, should be replaced.  But, if they hold their inflation for 24 hours and have a new gas bottle, they pass muster.  We only use these in the dinghy (the laws here are very strict on wearing an approved floatation aid and in the cold water, we agree!!) so it's a handy skill to be able to ensure they work.

Swimming towards the life raft with all the crew linked together. 
It's harder than it looks - and we were in a 'warm', calm swimming pool!

We learned things we had not considered - like, how difficult it is to see each other in the water.  You cannot swim a forward stroke when wearing a life jacket.  Even with lying on your back with the hood over your head in a calm pool, it is easy to take a gulp of water. It's not hard to blow up your life jacket manually.

Another excellent tip was that once you and others are in the life raft, collect everyone's knives and other sharps.  This is for three reasons:

1. Having them in a secure location prevents an accidental piercing of the life raft, 
2. They may be useful/needed at some point for something, 
3. The most interesting reason: to prevent someone doing deliberate personal harm to themselves or others.  Stress in a survival situation can cause people to do odd things.  We would not have thought of that.

Safely ashore ... waterlogged booties and all!

But at the end of the course, we were reassured, as the instructor went through the syllabus, that Chinook carries all safety items required and we had the majority of procedures in place and the skills to manage a worst case scenario.

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