Safety at Sea training

Just back from a safety at sea seminar. The last one was with a large group of people which meant very little opportunity to do something practical. It was also very US and Pacific crossing centric.

The two instructors were a wealth of knowledge and experience. They sailed Fastnet, Sydney Hobart, they have worked on Vendee Globe campaign, sailed regularly from Cape Horn to Antartica, worked in Antartica. How amazing is that! Their stories were incredible. And they were real.

The training was very practical and I liked it a lot - oh and there even was an exam (and if you paid attention it would not be a problem)

We had open and good conversations about various ways of doing things as the audience was also experienced sailors.

Some of the most meaningful conversations

Storm tactics

• carbon fiber boats don't flex, can't heave-to and need to run before a storm as their safest path
• we discussed heaving-to as a storm tactic Vs running with the storm using drogue to control boat speed and pace it with the wave to avoid pitch-poling. The instructor argument was that in order to maintain control of the boat, you need speed and control of the boat is vital in a storm. Too worried that hove-to the boat will just present its beam to the wave at some point and arguing that modern boats will still be going 2-3 knots so waves would still be breaking over the deck.
• Good rule of thumb as to when to do staysail + storm jib, then staysail only. Good discussion between 3rd reef in the main Vs staysail.

Weather

• Great conversation about how weather systems develop, how to spot them by looking at the sky, find where the center of the storm is and determine which quadrant you're on

Man overboard

• Great practical advice and conversation about lifejacket - I got one with a splashguard
• Automatic: if you are unconscious, it will just inflate. If you panic it will just inflate.
• Manual: better control while on the boat particularly at the bow
• Hydrostatic: higher risk of failure and poor sealing of the compartment for the hydrostatic system
• Protect your spotter, they don't pay attention to what is going on on the boat. You don't want them go overboard too
• As soon as someone go overboard, go down 120 degrees from the wind, go 4 boat lenghts and come back at 60 degrees. a) you have plenty of control and you can stop and go and b) you're more likely to find the guy. Practice dumping your kite FAST - and in a somewhat orderly fashion so you don't waste precious distance pulling an entire sail out of the water.

Hypothermia

• Discouraged the practice of warming up someone by getting into a sleeping bag with them - as it cools down another crew member.
• we looked at numbers and got good rule of thumbs - for instance you lose the use of your hands (as they become numb) in as many minutes as the water temperature in Celsius

There was also great videos about some east coast or brits who got donated a boat only to break it to practically test techniques to stop a leak, put out fires, etc...

Other things would be how to handle a helicopter rescue, etc...We even tried survival 'cake' (disgusting)

A liferaft as the instructor said is a misnomer. It really should be called 'last ditch effort to remain floating and alive for more than a couple of  hours'. If your boat is floating, no matter how badly damaged it is or how much control of it you have, STAY ON IT. you will always be safer than on an unstable wet raft that you need to pump up every few minutes as normal operation.

Practical in the water in full foulies - these lifejackets are so buoyant that it feels like being in space. You move one arm and end up doing a full turn :) and it is difficult to do anything with your hands as you can hardly wrap them around the lifejacket. Oh and crotch straps are a must... and sprayguard (now required apparently) is now a must

We practice righting a liferaft

We practice wet entering of a liferaft - with or without as 'injured' person. Make sure the injured person does not enter the liferaft face first as they might drown. Always strongest person on raft first so they can help pull others.

We practice crocodile transport.

We set out flares (then put out the fire)

We practice staying together - a) easier for rescuers to have the crew in one place, much more visible from the sky and as the body puts out some 2 KW of heat, we got a lot warmer instantly. Otherwise, not moving (keep your energy) and with arms along your body, with fists tucked under the vest was the warmest I could be and it made a heck of a difference Vs swimming around or even having my arms out at a 90 degree angle.

That's me getting back from under the raft after righting it. Being stuck underwater is my little private terror which is probably why I don't like the idea of diving. I had to fight panic when I was covered by the raft (and you are not underwater, the bottom of the raft is soft and there is plenty of air but you feel trapped). It took me 2 seconds to reason and then get back out but imagine in storm conditions how fun this would have been...

We all put out our fires. Aim at the base of the fire. Look at the amount of chemical waste this generates. Crazy shit in a close cabin.

We practice cutting rigging - one of the instructors was a professional rigger - we tried different tools including our own knives - on rod, halyard, wire and there was enough sizes that everyone's boat was represented.

All the practical stuff was a very humbling experience.

The time it takes for your hands to get cold and numb is amazingly short. We were probably in 16C degree water and I found that fast!

We couldn't move easily at all with our lifejackets in the way. They did a great job at keeping us afloat but they impede our ability to swim (we have to swim backwards without looking at where we are going and moving in a straight line alone was difficult as we were like floating in space with too much flotation), to catch anything was difficult, to protect our mouse and nose from the spray (our feet work like a drogue and point our face in the direction of the waves, hence the need for a splashguard. My day was miserable when I was splashed on but the folks with a splashguard looked pretty comfortable)

When I was in a raft back in 2006 we didn't have inflated lifejackets. In this training, we were wet with inflated lifejackets and were all on top of each other. I was trying to imagine 24hrs of that nightmare and it was difficult.

The first flare I tried to set off was tough. I couldn't. It was a Coast Guard approved one, not a SOLAS. I was given another cap and it worked. Perhaps the cap that I had was wet? Not sure. 

Righting the raft was difficult as I had little foothold. The others seem to do it faster and better. I struggled and forced myself to keep calm to ultimately do it. With adrenaline, things usually go better but it is interesting to see how difficult things are even in the calmest of conditions.

And cutting the rig, partciularly rod takes an awful long time. I couldn't use bolt cutter on them and hacksaw works but is slow unless you cut at the turnbuckle which is softer bronze.