Sea Survival Course
We are very happy to report we survived the sea survival course! The course was excellent and well worth doing. At least we know we don't ever want to get into our life raft if we can help it! But if that is the case we will have an idea of what to do and how to do it. The biggest threat to life is hypothermia in the water so being well prepared helps. I am updating my grab bag contents now. Having a positive mental attitude is all important! We will be rescued.

Part of the course was practical hands on experience in the dive pool in Plymouth. We even had to "step" off the 1m & 2m dive boards with our floatation devices into the pool to then clamber into the life raft and to practise "righting" it. We can tell you stepping off the 2m board was scary enough!

Our instructor was Martin. He was brilliant and very informative. He has his own marine safety business in Plymouth Yacht Haven, is a Coast Guard Rescue Office and the RNLI Lifeboat Sea Safety Officer for Plymouth (www.mjmarinesafety.co.uk). Separately he did our lifejacket annual service.

The theory part of the course was held in Crownhill Fort which is a Royal Commission Fort built in the 1860s as part of Lord Palmerston's ring of land defences for Plymouth. The course is organised by Western Training and is part of the STCW'95 certification courses (www.swta.co.uk)