29/03/2023
The last week was very unusual for me. From Monday to Thursday, I was in Rotterdam at the STC-KNRM center doing my safety training. The training includes fire fighting, elementary first aid, survival at sea, and personal and social responsibilities.
I always thought that first aid training is something that I must do. But having it combined with the rest of the skills looked very appealing. Especially with my passion for sailing.
TL;DR the training was excellent and was exceeding my expectations.
On the first day, we covered firefighting theory and personal and social responsibilities. That was the only day with only theory. But real-life stories based on the personal experience of the instructors were very interesting. I especially liked Rob's conversational style of teaching.
The next day we started with a bit of personal survival techniques theory and after lunch, we were given protection suits and life jackets. Will that equipment we went to the pool. I guess this video can show the best how the day in the pool went: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9Lhy7hIl4A (we did the part from 0:21 until 3:09). To me it is a big difference in reading about something and experiencing it myself. Simulated helicopter rescue from a life raft is a very interesting experience. Actually, getting into a liferaft is worth trying in a safe condition at least once, rather than trying it during an emergency. After the pool, we were introduced to different types of lifeboats. We simulated a launch of one and packed into it feeling and imagining how that can be in a real-life emergency situation.
On the third day, we went through essential first aid. CPR, AED, heart attack, strokes, missing fingers, fingers damaged by rings, unconscious casualties, and much more that we dealt with during the day. What I really liked about this training is that we were able to try the stuff as much as it was possible. I had no idea that the modern AED is so helpful. The device just tells you what to do.
The last day of our training was dedicated to firefighting. We tried all major types of fire extinguishers, breathing apparatus, and fire hoses and even make a small gas canister of camping gas explode. Many of the exercises we did with breathing apparatus on. Keeping eye on the air gauge knowing that the air is running out can be quite stressful. "Monkey cage" exercises were particularly intense. The exercise is to find the way out of a labyrinth of confined space in complete darkness. You have to crawl, find tunnels, slides, cages, dead-ends, etc, in a time-limited amount of air that is left in your tank.
The people that I was training with formed a very effective team and it was a pleasure to train with them. Special thanks to my team for such a great time.
