As the time to leave moves ever closer, our thoughts turn to the skills that we may need once on our travels.
One of the requirements for taking part in the ARC+ is that we must have completed our Offshore Safety and Sea Survival courses. The World Cruising Club work in partnership with the Hamble School of Yachting to provide these at a discounted rate, so off we went to Hamble.
Day 1
Sea Survival: A day of classroom and pool based learning.
We spent all morning learning about things that can go seriously wrong and lead to you abandoning ship and then how awful it will be in the liferaft!
The afternoon was practical in the swimming pool, practising sea survival routines including towing an injured person, entering and exiting the liferaft and righting an upside down liferaft. All while fully kitted out in foul weather gear and inflated lifejacket…not easy.
The key message from the day was do everything possible to avoid falling/getting off the boat!!
(Unfortunately, there are no pictures as the interesting bits were a bit wet!!)
Day 2
Day 1 led nicely onto Day 2 (Offshore Safety); looking at procedures and safety equipment that would reduce the risk of falling off in the first place and increase the chances of you being found if you did fall off or abandon ship.
This included fire extinguishers, setting off flares and, of course, Man Overboard drill.
I am seriously hoping we never have to use any of these things for real!!
Looks like the practice was daunting
It’s getting so close now when is the date you set sail ?
Hi
It was pretty scary, thinking what could happen. But then if you thought about it, you would never drive a car….
We are hoping to leave Ipswich in April and head down to the south coast, ending up in Falmouth in June. Then it is about watching the weather for a five day window to travel across the Bay of Biscay and to Portugal! Xx
So much fun. Almost looks like they set the RIB on fire!
I would definitely recommend it! It makes you think too!!