Survival at Sea
It is much darker than I had expected. The sticky air of too many people in too confined space is flavored with a rubber smell much more distinct than I could have imagined. We are 10 men sitting on a shaking wet rubber floor looking at each other. The jokes about why we had not taken a female crew member into our life raft had since long faded out. One of us was feeling sea sick already and grabbed the only plastic bag in the raft. Who would like to use it as the next person?

We had the poor consolation of sitting in the larger, more stable and ”comfortable” life raft for 10 people, while my poor wife Karolina was sitting in a much smaller life raft intended for yachts hosting 6 persons somewhere close to us. Hopefully. I could hear some singing from far away, which mixed with the sound of the never-ending waves pounding against the rubber roof. Could that be them?

Finally, one fellow broke the ice, suggesting that we might let in some air into the raft through the opening. We all thought that was a good idea and the guy at the entrance opened up the rubber door and let in some wonderful oxygen. But just after a couple of seconds the next wave hit our new home, filling our living space with yet more water. The door had to be closed immediately.

Hadn’t I read uncountable books on seamanship? Hadn’t I been able to feel how the Baileys survived 118 days at sea in a life raft while reading their most exciting book? Hadn’t I thought that if anything goes wrong, we’ll jump into the life raft to get rescued? All this is, in no way, comparable with actually sitting here together with other equally committed sailors waiting for rescue.

How long had we been sitting here, anyway? Minutes, hours, days? I think I was not the only one asking myself why I had paid money to participate on this Marine Survival Course organized by the Deutsche Marine, the German Navy.
The guy at the entrance suddenly shouted something about rescue through the sound of water and through my thoughts. We were now lying alongside a huge wall with a wide rope ladder, simulating a vessel’s hull. What a relief! One after the other was now gladly leaving the small shaking rubber-island in the training basin for the safety of fixed ground, be it a rope ladder leading high up into stability.
After having helped each other getting up onto the “vessel’s deck” the fun had just begun, one of our many trainers laughed: There was no way down from the “deck”. At least no dry way.
New detailed instructions were given, just as we had received valuable information previous to all training task at this course, following theoretical lecture in the classroom earlier this morning. It was now time to test our life jackets. Two and two, we had to jump down the 4 meters into the training basin with the simulating heavy seas. And when a German Navy Officer shouts “JUMP”, there is definitely no refusal possible!
The flight down to sea level was thus not an issue while already in the air. The unexpected experience did not come until me being under water: With heavy clothes one sinks far further down than one might expect, so the 5 meters water depth in the basin do have a reason, espacially since waves change the depth all the time.

Even more frightening, I thought, was the fact that for a short moment I was disoriented. Where was up and where was down? Before I had figured out, the life west was getting filled with CO2 and soon I started my trip back up to the water level. Having reached the air, my body immediately started to breath with a couple of very short breaths, which we had been warned might happen. At the same time I breathed as if it was my last breath, the next wave washed over my face, so instead of air, I got some water into my body. If the water had been colder, this could lead to a shock.
Now various situations were practiced, like climbing in and out of a life raft and swimming in waves. Also, we were given the unique situation to test our own standard life west on top of our own foul weather gear to see how it behaves in “sea conditions”.

The experience I made was interesting. First of all, I was already feeling tired in my heavy clothes, despite the fact that the waves in the basin only were 80 cm and the water temperature “comfortable” 28 degrees. I wonder how it would feel in more Scandinavian water conditions… I was thus thankful that I had a real life west and not only a floating device of 50N so often used by Swedish sailors. In class, we had also been told that if the water temperature had been colder, one very quickly looses the ability to grab things with your hands thus further stressing the importance of an adequate life west.

Another experience was that it was of utmost importance to hold to the life raft when in water, since I was quickly drifting away from the life raft in the waves. To climb into the life raft itself was soon made possible by technique and by repetitive trials. The blown up life west was not as much in the way as stated in previous tests made by the Swedish boating press, as I felt. The trick was to step onto the submerged entrance ramp of the life raft as horizontally as possible without pushing it under the life raft itself. Then, you need to swing you upper body onto the entrance of the life raft and get as much weight as possible forward while finally sliding into the life raft on your life west. Admittingly not easy the first time you tried, but after a couple of tests, it actually worked! It helps a lot if a person in the water hangs onto the life raft on the opposite side, or sits at that place if he/she already is in. Otherwise the risk is obvious that the whole life raft turns over, especially if the wind may help this turning upside down.
Another experience was the problem of water constantly washing over your face making breathing difficult while lying in the water. Here a spray hood, offered as an extra by the leading life west manufacturers was invaluable, protecting your face from the sea. An additional sling between your legs to hold down your life west is also experienced to increase comfort as well as the fact that the life west always should be carried tight with only one hand being possible to stick between the life west and the body.

The training of a rescue situation was finalized by showing how air rescue by helicopter is being done safely. Important is to put the helicopter harness on top of the life west and then to keep the arms pointing down keeping the hands together close to your body eliminating the risk of sliding out of the rescue harness.
Rescue training was only one part of the 2 day course organized by the German Sailing Association “Deutscher Segler Verband” in co-operation with the German Navy.

Fire Fighting was one important subject where we all one after each other had to extinguish various types of fires with different methods and fire extinguishers. And there was no small fireplace we sat around to blow out. This fire was huge and although hot, I think we were all surprised on our abilities to first get the courage to approach such a big fire and then being able to totally extinguishing it all by ourselves. The techniques of using a CO2 fire extinguisher or a powder device was very different. The CO2 extinguisher was not in favor by anybody of us and only sensible for fighting an electrical fire if you wish to save the electrical equipment. On the other hand, powder extinguishers also work fine for electrical fires, but at the same time destroys the equipment itself. But who cares about destroyed equipment if your boat is about to burn up!

The normal sized 2 or 3 kg extinguishers were also considered as being very limited in size.
The by far biggest risk of a fire in a boat is from the electrical installation resulting from poor installation and under-dimensioning cables while adding more and more equipment to the system. The second biggest risk of fire is in the engine room, especially after the engine has been switched off when fuel is no longer pumped into the engine and, instead, leaks onto the hot engine block. Thus an inspection of the engine room after stopping and leaving the boat is a good habit.
The third biggest risk is at the stove, either by gas leakage or, more often, due to burning oil. Burning cooking oil should be extinguished by an easily reachable fire blanket rather than by a fire extinguisher. That smoking in berth is the forth risk factor is not an issue for me, since who would be so stupid to smoke in berth? Interestingly enough, candles or oil lamps are statistically not a high risk, since people are very careful here.
As one part of the training course, we were lead into a ship section four meters below the waterline. Overalls and boots were provided and we were asked to only have our swim suits underneath. What now? Suddenly water came gushing out of a crack on the ship’s hull. We’re taking in water! 4 men threw themselves with anything at hand like cushions or blankets to get the water stopping from entering the boat. “We need some piece of wood, quick!” one shouted, pointing at some boards lying around in a corner. The water was making a noise that it was difficult to talk with the metal walls making an echo. So we hardly heard that suddenly more water came blowing in through a new hole at an even higher speed. And a third hole, this time a round whole. We suddenly had to organize ourselves, making priorities and finding a way not only to stop the water from coming in, but also to make the “seals” stay at their places.

First job was to have some sort of soft cloth closest to the leaking hole. On top of that a conical plug, a wedge or boards to spread the load. Finally some sort of arrangement to hold it all in place and to apply the load against the hole with its seal, e.g. the tiller, the boat hook, a broomstick, the spinnaker boom, anything that fits. Important is to have the stick at a right angle to the underlying boards to keep it in place. And, of course, to have adequate pumps. The goal is to have more water leaving the boat than entering it, while it is not that important to get the boat 100% water proof. On a sailing boat, you should immediately get the hole as high up as possible to minimize water pressure, and maybe tack for that reason. When all is set in place, the storm jib can finally be placed from the outside of the hull to minimize leakage even more.

My experience here was contrary to the ones in the life raft. While I certainly do not wish to spend any longer time in a tiny life raft, I felt that it actually was possible to prevent a leaking vessel from sinking. Important are several high capacity pumps and finding the actual hole quickly. Then it is a matter of fantasy and using whatever is at hand to keep the vessel afloat. It is impressive how much water enters through a hole of limited size, but at the same time the height difference between the water level and the position of the hole is essential. With a bigger boat, you also have more time, since it can float longer with more water than a smaller boat.

In any case, I will do anything to keep my boat afloat before even thinking of exchanging it for a life raft!
The last part of the survival-training course was about pyrotechnics. When do you ever have the chance to send up real parachute flares and actually feel in your hand the pressure of the pyrotechnics reaching the skies to alert your situation? We were each able to test various types of signals and learn when to use which in what way.

It is impressive how different the flares are being operated and it is very essential that you make yourself familiar with the types you happen to have on your boat.
All in all, this training course in Neustadt close to Lübeck in Northern Germany was so valuable that I can recommend the same to any sailor with safety in mind. German language is, of course, essential to understand the lectures and instructions. The organization was precise and professional, just as you would have expected from the German Navy.

The price of EUR 256 per person for almost two full days including all material, meals and overnight in the tenement of the Navy is very reasonable, I think. The course is open to anybody and organized by the "Kreuzerabteilung des Deutschen Seglerverbandes", the Cruising Devision of the German Sailing Association.

For more information on this course, please contact Deutscher Seglerverband, Kreuzerabteilung, www.kreuzer-abteilung.org. Detailed information on their training courses you find by clicking on "Ausbildung" or call +49-40-632 00 90, e-mail: info@kreuzer-abteilung.org.