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Sunday
morning under the duvet, no alarm, nice lay-in with sun piercing
through the gap in the curtains, Sunday papers on the door mat, smell
of fresh coffee brewing, bacon sizzling away in the frying pan.
This was going through my head as water drenched me, directed straight
in the face, I could not see or hear as it felt like I was drowning but
knowing my trusty life jacket was keeping my head above water bought me
back to reality very quickly. Not being able to breathe without taking
in litres of water, this was a situation that could get very bad. There
were 3 people still in the water and one of them was me, the focus was
to get out of the water into the cramped lift raft with the others. We
did and with the confirming nod from the RYA instructor, he seemed
fairly happy.
The 8th March saw the Fastnet crew of 2009 take part in their Sea Survival course in Southampton.
Sunday mornings for most people, I’m sure relate to the first
paragraph but speaking for myself and other yachties the world over,
waking up very early on a March Sunday morning, with the thought of
heading to the coast gets the blood pumping, but this was different, I
knew that I wouldn’t be playing on yachts. As we headed along the
A3 towards Gosport, (Liz had the nice job of taking Lutine from Port
Solent, her winter home to Haslar marina, with Simon the skipper). So I
would be dropping her off first. My mind was running all different
kinds of scenarios, what will it be like, will my life jacket open,
will the water be icy cold, how will I react to the situations of the
day, not knowing was the biggest thought. In 16 years of sailing and
racing, I have never taking part in a Sea Survival course and
didn’t know what to expect.
After dropping Liz off at Port Solent, with Lutine, who looks stunning
after her winter make over, I headed to SWAC, Southampton water
activities centre, located just under the toll bridge, fairly close to
Ocean Village.
As I pulled into the car park the welcome faces or Andrew Baddeley, Marcus George and Dan Warburg were awaiting me.
It’s amazing after only one weekend together and a few drunken
evenings in London, you can really start to feel a sense of
comradeship. After the good mornings and general catch ups, we
were joined by Tom Bailey, Nikki Oxford, Alister Mitchell and Jim
Loughran.
As were all waiting around in the car park and catching up, we were
ushered into the building and taken to our class room for most of the
day.
Colin Ridley introduced himself, and after the mandatory form filling
we were underway. Colin spoke about his travels and qualification for
the RYA, having just returned from a trip to Alaska, training the crab
trawler men in safety at sea, if this was the case this put my mind at
some ease, even though the Irish Sea could possibly resemble the cold
waters of the Pacific North.
As videos and discussion drew closer to the pool time, I was getting
more nervous, making light of being back in the class room after many
years away, the sense of mischief was brewing.
Then it was upon us, 11 am, wow, time moves very if not too fast in certain situations.
All were shepherded into the mini bus, bags in the trailer behind; it was more like taking part in a geography field trip.
As the day progressed the volume seemed to increase, well we are a
lively bunch, on the course we were joined by a few others thinking
that we are mad as hatters for taking part in the Fastnet, do they know
something we don’t?????
There was a range of people from complete novices, rib charter company
owner and, to a future captain of the Town Quay to Hythe ferry.
Testing out the sense of humour of our instructor, I tried to look as
excited as possible as I asked Colin, “So it’s going to be
freezing water in the pool then, to make feel more authentic,
right?”, the answer, priceless. “Due to the RYA, the pool
has to be heated; it’s between 25/28 degrees C”. Perfect.
The Arcona pool, which is just over the road from Swanick Marina, was
by Olympic standards, mall, but I was soon to learn, very
effective. As we all headed to the changing rooms to don our wet
weather gear and life jackets, I was smiling to myself, warm water,
perfect.
Most people were wearing the clothing and equipment supplied by SWAC,
but I wanted to test my kit, well my old kit that has long since
de-laminated, and also another confession, I didn’t have my own
life jacked with me, Liz lent me hers to make sure it worked properly.
I now know how test pilots feel. This was a true test of our
relationship.
All changed and ready to go, waiting to see how the 8 man lift raft
would inflate, I have never seen this done before and couldn’t
wait. The painter was pulled and the life raft came to life, it
worked, and fascinating to watch. Now for the plunge, so many
things going through my mind, the thing was to make sure I had my hand
on the inflation cord, 3, 2, 1.
Next thing I know is that the life jacket burst to life, ah, so it was automatic after all.
We were taught different manoeuvres in the water, finding out the best way to get to the life raft.
Righting the lift raft was going to be interesting, as the instructor
explain about pulling on the hand holds on the bottom and pushing with
your feet, and pull the raft on top of you, making sure you keep your
hand raised above your head to keep an air chamber on the underside. I
can’t think of anything worse. It all went swimmingly and all of
us popped out, one by one.
As there was a future ferry captain among us, Colin said we should use
the 3 metre platform entry into the pool. Now this would make me buy a
motor boat with a fly-bridge, it was great fun, well apart from
swallowing half of the pool water.
For the final test we were all sent back to the changing rooms. The
scenario was set, as we piled out of the warm changing room, into the
pitch black swimming pool, you could just about make out the black
silhouette of the underside of the raft, the rain machine was hammering
down, buckets of water, and a freezing hose, directed by straight into
the face.
Everyone in our group was in the water, right now to remember
everything we had learnt. Group up, make sure everyone was accounted
for, manoeuvre to the raft, right it, and start to get everyone in.
All going fantastically well, however Marcus was told by the instructor
that he was unconscious during this exercise, but that was not a
problem and we worked together extremely well.
All changed and heading back to the training centre, all talking about the exciting time we had in the pool.
The rest of the day flew by, a short lunch break followed by some horrific videos of people living in rafts for over 2 months.
The day drew to an end and we collected our certificates, said our goodbyes and headed home.
Andrew Jameson Sea Survival Course Survivor
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