Sailing Safety Class….Fight or Flight? Try Invention. Try Play.

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Safety

Alaska Marine Safety Education Association (AMSEA) was in town April 25-26, conducting Emergency Drill Conductor training for SEAS. AMSEA’s “Fog Fury 1000” smoke machine made for spooky drills aboard Optiminium and Thalia.  Before drilling, the class worked through drill scenarios in “Beating Odds on Northern Waters,” including crew overboard, fire, flooding, and abandon ship. (http://www.amazon.com/Beating-Odds-Northern-Waters-Fishing/dp/1566120780)

AMSEA instructors donned immersion suits and slipped into the harbor for crew overboard drills. Drills were done while docked; class disccused sailing-specific crew overboard maneuvers presented here: http://www.gosailing.info/man%20overboard.htm.

During class, Jerry Dzugan, AMSEA Executive Director and instructor, shared his first hand survival stories and his collected lessons learned from a career studying at sea safety.

According to AMSEA’s “Seven Steps To Survival,” your attitude in an emergency is key.

  • Recognize: Your life in danger. Calm down, make a plan, act.
  • Inventory: Decide what and who can help.  Consider Skills, Gear, Surroundings.
  • Shelter: Your vessel. Your clothes.  A trash bag with a slit cut for your face.
  • Signals: Get found.  Keep your PLB on you, leave it running once it is on.
  • Water: Drink two to four quarts a day.
  • Food: Food is comfort.
  • Play: Assign small tasks for accomplishment, tell stories, laugh, give high fives.

Other lessons shared:

Invent.  Dzugan says ““the first 6 letters of the survival step “Inventory” spell “invent.””  Hope Merritt, co-instructor, went through the contents of her flooding kit: old inner tube, old neoprene immersion suit material, zip ties, a True Plug (http://www.forespar.com/Truplug/)....or use a carrot from the galley. She keeps a hatchet, reminding class to remember to “cut the wedge, not the hole.” She added she hangs a spare plug near the thru hulls and keeps a rubber mallet aboard.

Communicate with your crew before and during emergencies.  At watch changes, tell your relief the current location.  Communication with the Coast Guard is important, too. Know how to do a mayday call. When is it appropriate to call?  When should one abandon ship? There is no hard rule. “Shed distractions,” Dzugan says, “stay as long as you can, but abandon the vessel when you need to.” Consider the risk aboard versus risk in the water.  The M/V Galaxy, on fire, was too hot to stay aboard. (Story here: http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20030210&slug=galaxy10m)

Awareness. Dzugan said “situational awareness” is important. “Focus on a plan, but do what keeps you safe.” Dzugan referenced the books “God Forsaken Sea” and “Fastnet, Force 10,” the stories of sailors caught in fierce storms.  Tony Paterson, a Fastnet survivor, writes “the biggest thing on earth was wild and angry.” (in http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/sailing/hell-and-high-water-the-fastnet-disaster-1748093.html) 

Dzugan mentioned that while Mythbusters showed you won’t get sucked under by a sinking boat, the main dangers are entrapment and entanglement. “Keep snaps near your jackline,” Dzugan says, “you don’t want to be tethered to something you can’t release yourself from.” http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/videos/sinking-titanic-minimyth/

-Sternfeld