Preparations

As part of the preparations for my trip, I went on a sea survival course to give me a better understanding of what to do in an emergency situation. We spent the morning learning about various disasters which have forced us to develop the equipment we use today. For example, we learnt about an incident in Australia where a crew capsized and some of the crew lost their lives.They abandoned ship too early which increased the time they spent in the life raft and their life raft also capsized. At this time the bottom of life rafts were black so the rescue helicopter could not see where they were, hence we have changed our lift rafts so the bottoms are now luminous orange or yellow. We also learned about the different objects in the life rafts. For example, each person only has 1.5 litres of water for either a few hours or could be days in that life raft. This gave me some insight into how awful it would be to have to stay in one. In the afternoon we learned about the effects of cold shock and the limitations it places on the casualty being able to help people rescue them, such as they often cannot hold onto a ladder to climb onto a ship for example. This also brought home to me your vulnerability if you get stuck out at sea. We then went over to the swimming pool at Largs and wearing our lifejackets and waterproofs were given a variety of exercises. One of these challenges was to climb into the raft from the water. Imagine trying to climb into a boat with a fully inflated life jacket and heavy waterproofs on- it is not easy! We also learnt how to right the raft if it capsized which is common when they are first launched due to the lack of weight. On the bottom of the rafts there are four bags that fill with water with pieces of lead in each of the corners. However, this is problematic when righting it because you are likely to be hit by the lead if not the canister and be knocked out so it was important that we learnt how to do this in the safest way possible. At the end of the session we did a timed drill where the crew had to tow an injured casualty to the liferaft at the other end of the pool and help them in, get everyone else in, close the raft and maintain. This was more challenging than it sounds as the remainder of the group were hosing us in the face and spraying us with water to replicate the feeling of being in a rough sea. It is safe to say I never want to have to use a lifraft or be in a rough sea. I could see that the whole experience would be very traumatic and you would most likely be in shock making it even more difficult to make wise decisions. I also went on a first aid course where we learnt more about these sea survival skills as well as how to treat a casualty out at sea which is very tricky.

I have only ever sailed with my family so I thought it would help me prepare if I had some insight into how other people managed sailing and to learn more about sailing techniques so I went on a 6 day course. We had a great week of perfect weather and sailed across to Northern Ireland. We had a good time in Northern Ireland and got to see Rathlin Island as we waited for the tides to do our night sail. But the best day was going from Glenarm to the Sound of Bute. We had a following sea, meaning that we were surfing the waves as they came up behind us, This is the best feeling as you feel like you are flying which we almost were at 11.17 knots! Overall, it was a fun course and was great to see how other people sail.

My final course to prepare me for my adventures was a TEFL course where we learnt how to teach English as a foreign language. This three day course was really interesting as we learnt different techniques of how to drill vocal, explain grammar and teach listening and reading. It was surprisingly difficult to plan lessons but also to explain task in a simple way. Overall I think it has helped to prepare me for Nepal!