Man overboard exercises
News from Starboard Watch: Orren, Georgia, Diana, Emma and Eve
After being anchored for the night in Ådnoy we tooka chance to practise a new version of the man overboard drill in the calmsurroundings of the tranquil bay. This time for a person that was unconsciousand unable to help themselves.
We began by talking through all the equipmentthat would be needed, this included harnesses, different lines and handybillys, a figure of eight and an immersion suit. Then splitting into our twowatches, we set it all up so we could learn how to properly use it.
Starboardused the handy billys and lines to set up a pulley system with a lot ofpurchase that could be used to pull in a casualty and rescuer; we discussedthat this could only be used late in the rescue due to the length of ropeneeded and time consumption. Meanwhile, Port kitted Steven and Molly out inrescuer and casualty garb, Steven wore the harness and helmet and Molly thestrop.The watch attached them to a line attached to a figure of eight.
Bothwatches presented what they’d constructed to the other, this was impressive aseveryone got involved and enjoyed displaying what they’d done. We then usedFRED- our dummy to play the casualty; we tied him to a line (this isn’tcheating, the ship was anchored so we couldn’t move!) to keep him in a reasonable area and Richard,in his dry suit went into the water.
On boardthere was a flurry of activity; getting the kit out its bag, getting ready thescramble net and using what we’d learned to set up the handy billy and lines.Richard managed to attach the strop to poor Fred and we hauled the both of themin, rolling Fred into the scramble net to get him up the side and helpingRichard out.
Once Fred was safely back on his favourite bit ofdeck and everything cleared up, we all felt a great sense of achievement andpride in the results of our hard work- Fred’s safe return.
Then, in quick time for us we raised the anchor andwere on our way to Jorpeland. Here some of us went out in the dinghy to catchfish ( which is really smelly) and the others explored the shops. We found aNorwegian charity shop, and were excited for a bargain, but even charity shopsare expensive in Norway! Later we took a trip to Jorpelands small bowlingalley, we had two lanes and Steven and Diana won the games. While we were therewe sampled massive ice creams and were about to explode upon heading back tothe ship.
We are now sailing back to Skudness, forSkudefestivalen where we will spend the next couple of days before making ourway home!
