Today’s class was a continuation of yesterday afternoon on Personal Survival and this evening from 7-9pm we were at the Hall of Fame outdoor swimming pool for abadon ship drill including:

• treading water for 15 minutes
• swimming with immersion suits
• inflating a liferaft
• righting an upturned liferaft
• the huddle and HELP positions
• jumping from a 15 foot platform into the water with a Type 1 PFD

It wasn’t as difficult as the class I took 10 years ago when I did it in full foul weather gear. We were allowed to wear shorts and tshirts so there wasn’t as much drag as last time I did the course. It was however, very useful as a refresher was needed! It was also good fun.

Below is a video I took of Anne a member of my class righting the liferaft. You can see she had a little difficulty with balance as the Co2 cartridge is slippy. You can imagine at sea it would be pretty hard.

[youtube vE6rPyITlaQ]