Sea survival training

On Saturday after the week at Girton college all of the people travelling to Antarctica by ship had to be up and ready for 6:30am to head off to Lowestoft for sea survival training.

This was the training I was least looking forward to, not only becuase of the very early start but because of the prospect of having to jump from a large height into water (which is really not my idea of a good time). There were various rumours going around about the height we had to jump from ranging from 6-10 metres. I was definitely hoping it wasn't 10.

We arrived at Lowestoft and launched into a three hour powerpoint session about lifeboat operation, when to abandon ship and how best to survive in a life raft. A lot of it was fairly technical and probably not that relevant to us, as I hope the ships crew will be lowering the lifeboats if we were sinking and not me! The information about how to survive in the life raft was good though- no water or food for 24 hours, how to keep warm, and how to signal for help.

After the classroom session was over we had lunch just in time for the pool session. We changed into attractive orange boiler suits (looked very much like Guantanamo bay prisoners) and rubber shoes, donned our lifejackets, and then it was time to get wet. Luckily we didn't have to jump from 10 metres but it still looked mighty high (even though it was "only" 3.5 metres above the water). The pool was 4 metres deep so when you looked down it was nearly 8 metres to the bottom which looks very high when you have to jump into it. We were told that we had to make sure we held our life jackets down with one hand so they don't ride up and hit you in the face, or dislocate your shoulder, and one hand over your nose and mouth.

When it was my turn to jump I closed my eyes and after a few seconds deliberating jumped. You definitely had time to think about falling and worry about whether you were holding the life jacket correctly, but it wasn't as bad as I expected.  However it wasn't over yet!

The next stage was to jump again but this time in the dark (which was fine as I had my eyes closed anyway), you just had to be careful not to jump on top of anyone! We then practiced clambering into life rafts, and righting an upside down raft on your own, followed by being winched up from the pool (like you would be by a helicopter). Once they decided we were competent they turned the storm on... this time we had to jump into the pool which now had 2 metre waves, rain and a gale! A bit more realistic!

We were then told to take our lifejackets off and thought it was the end, but oh no, this was the real practice. This time the lights went off and the abandon ship order came across the tannoy, we had to get upstairs, get our lifejackets on and get off the ship all in the dark (with a few lightning flashes). Once you were in the water you had to swim for the raft, which was being thrown all over the pool by the waves, all get in (easier said than done) and batten down the hatches. As I was heaved into the life raft I found myself face down underwater in the life raft! I've never heard of drowning in the raft before, but it was a scary few moments as I tried to get my head above water, while my feet were still up on the side of the raft, and people were sitting on me. We had a bit of trouble figuring out if we were all in the raft, but luckily everyone made it safely!

We all got a shiny certificate and are fit to go to sea!