I survived!

Hello everyone! I’m sorry that I never got this out earlier this week...it’s been a crazy one.

Last time I mentioned that I’d be going on some survival training. Well I did and I survived!! It was a 3 day course called “Basic Offshore Safety Induction and Emergency Training”. EVERYONE that goes offshore in the UK, must take this training and get it renewed every 4 years. Basically on day 1 we went through a lot of theory and introductions to what we were going to be doing during the 3 days. We had to write a quick quiz that first morning on the theory and if we passed that, then we could go on to complete the rest of the Training. (I got 12/12 …boooh ya!) So on to the rest of the training I went. That afternoon we went over some survival 1st aid. This applied the first aid that we take with St. John’s but adapted it to be useful in a life boat or life raft. It was very interesting as I never would have thought about what to do when there are 15 people squished into an inflatable dingy (except more advanced of course) with one person unconscious or worse, seriously hurt. But now I know.

The next morning we went through some training in the life boats both in the class and in a boat that was in a pool. HOWEVER, before we could do anything around the pool, we had to learn how to put on a survival safety suit (which you must put on before getting into a helicopter)





This is exactly what I looked like, except not so elegant and...well...a girl. So we get into these fantastic suits, which, I might add, are worn by at least 2-3 other people every day that training center is open...yuck! Hello Athletes foot. They say that you must make sure your suit is good and snug around the neck and wrist seals. I don’t think my eyes were supposed to bug out of my head due to lack of blood flow, but hey…no water got it!! Now that we could go in the pool, we also did some survival swimming and how to get towed into a helicopter...etc. Did you know that when you are in freezing water, you are not supposed to use your legs to swim? You need to save your energy for when you need to climb up the rope ladder after suffering from hypothermia…I could BARELY climb it WITHOUT suffering from Hypothermia! Yow-zaaaas. That afternoon we went through some fire safety training. We got to use some extinguishers and navigate through a container that had a fire and was filled billowing smoke so that you couldn’t see anything.

Friday was the big day. We took some theory then had to learn how to use an EBS – Emergency Breathing Device. This is quite literally a pouch that is strapped to your chest with a mouthpiece (it is the red pouch on the first guy). You take a giant breath in just before you go under water and breathe it into this pouch...You then re-breath your own air. As you can imagine you can’t do this forever, but it buys you at least 30 – 45 sec while under water and suffering from cold shock. We had to go through some training on how to use the EBS, on pool side, then in the pool with water to our chin. Both of these scenarios were fine. I could easily last 30 seconds and it didn’t bother me. The next step was to put our face under the water and float on the surface. THIS I wasn’t so keen on. I immediately panicked. It felt like I couldn’t breath...and my brain was telling me that my gills weren’t totally formed yet. Go figure. I had to do it 3 times before I could feel comfortable. Once I realized I could actually breathe under water it wasn’t so bad. The next step was holding ourselves a few feet under water using the re-breather.

Finally there was ‘The Simulator’. This thing was a vessel that had holes in the roof and floor allowing copious amounts of water to come rushing in. It had 4 bucket seats with open squares and an escape windows next to each. 3 tests had to be done in the simulator. 1st – we were lowered into the water just before we went under we had to take a breath...get lowered until we were completely submerged. While holding our breath we had to count to 7 then release ourselves from our seat and escape through the window. A little nerve-racking but I made it. 2nd – we had to do the same exercise, but got to use the re-breather. No problem. And last but not least, we strapped in for a final time. They simulated a helicopter going down; we got ready for a ‘crash landing’. They stopped the simulator when the water was at our knees so that we had enough time to get the re-breather ready...then plunged us into the water, once completely submerged, they flipped the ‘helicopter’ over 180 degrees. We had to keep our bearings (key is to hold onto the window at all times) and then escape. It was actually really cool. The scariest part of the whole training for me was having to stick my face 1 inch under the water.

SOoooooooo...long story short...I survived! Maybe I should have just said that at the start and saved you all the last 10 minutes of your life :)


Also...Last time I mentioned that we were going out for a supper to welcome the new people to the team. We happened to go to a Mexican restaurant. BUT...it wasn’t just any Mexican restaurant...it was one that gave out party favours!! Hello!!! We were sure to take some pictures...do you recognize this seniorita??






(yes...those are 3 mustaches stratigically placed on my co-workers face!! Kinda scary!)

I hope all is well at home. Take it easy and remember:

"Nobody ever died of laughter."